Posted July 13, 2012
Written by Alex Newman
The New American
March 9, 2012
In yet another victory for liberty-minded activists, local lawmakers in Ocean County, New Jersey, approved a stinging resolution last month blasting the United Nations’ highly controversial Agenda 21, a radical plan to foist so-called “sustainable development” on Americans by stealth.
Communities across America are fighting back against the international program and its tentacles in ever-increasing numbers. And in January, even the Republican National Committee adopted a resolution strongly condemning Agenda 21 and vowing to fight it.
Similarly, the Ocean County legislators — known in New Jersey as the “Board of Chosen Freeholders” — recognized that the nature of the UN plan is “destructive and insidious,” using much of the language from the RNC statement. The county resolution also noted that approval or implementation of Agenda 21 “would ultimately destroy the sovereignty of the United States of America.”
“This United Nations Agenda 21 plan of radical so-called ‘sustainable development’ views the American way of life of private property ownership, single family homes, private car ownership and individual travel choices, and privately owned farms; all as destructive to the environment,” the resolution states, echoing the RNC measure.
And it is insidious in several ways, county officials said in the document. “According to Agenda 21 policy, social justice is described as the right and opportunity of all people to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment which would be accomplished by socialist/communist redistribution of wealth,” the resolution explains.
As such, local officials in Ocean County voted to urge the U.S. Senate — which must ratify all international treaties — to abandon any potential consideration of the UN Agenda 21 scheme. While noting that no level of government in the U.S. was legally bound by the treaty because it had not been ratified, the resolution also urged officials across the nation to be well informed about its harmful implications.
Certified copies of the measure, approved by the Board on February 15, “shall” be sent to President Obama, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and the state’s U.S. House and Senate delegations. The resolution approved by the RNC was sent to all GOP members of and candidates for Congress, as well as all state Republican parties.
According to the recently approved resolution in New Jersey, citizens in Ocean County and across America have raised serious concerns about the UN-inspired schemes, warning that Agenda 21 represents “extreme environmentalism, social engineering and global political control.”
Those concerned Americans noted that the plan is being covertly imposed on local communities through a global UN front group known as ICLEI – formerly called International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives. The non-profit group, which advocates a broad array of controversial policies at all levels of government, collects massive amounts of taxpayer money.
“Agenda 21 attempts to erode local control found in our communities across the nation, and turns home and regional rule over to a global agenda set by the United Nations,” the resolution points out. “Critical issues such as the environment should remain within the purview of local governments of the United States, elected by the people, with a strong knowledge of local concerns and issues, not within the confines of a bureaucratic international treaty developed by the United Nations.”
Tea Party groups and a broad coalition of national organizations have mobilized in recent years to put a stop to Agenda 21 and related infringements on liberty. And lawmakers across America have responded, dropping ICLEI and being careful to avoid becoming entangled in its programs. Dozens of communities throughout the nation have already ended their membership in the programs in recent years, and a new wave of withdrawals is expected in 2012.
But as ICLEI and Agenda 21 come under increasing scrutiny and pressure, the so-called “establishment” is fighting back. The UN, for example, dispatched tax-funded propagandists to paint the schemes as harmless and its opponents as silly. ICLEI itself has jumped in the fray, too, branding opponents of the scheme as “vehement” and — ludicrously, analysts say — as opposed to prosperity.
The New York Times, meanwhile, also tried to hide the true nature of the plan in a recent article detailing the battle against ICLEI. And as the spotlight on the UN schemes grows stronger, more and more “news” articles bashing critics of Agenda 21 have continued to appear across the country.
The infamous but largely discredited Southern Poverty Law Center, a radical attack-dog outfit widely derided as an anti-liberty “communistic hate group” with extremist tendencies, highlighted the organizations and individuals it blames for arousing opposition to Agenda 21: “The John Birch Society, an archconservative group formed during the Red Scare of the 1950s … Tom DeWeese, head of the American Policy Center, Phyllis Schlafly, founder of the anti-feminist Eagle Forum, and John Bush, with Texans for Accountable Government.”
Indeed, all of those groups have been active in educating citizens about the UN’s goals. But for the most part, anti-Agenda 21 activists — supporters of property rights, national sovereignty, individual liberty, economic prosperity, and more — have simply pointed to the global body’s own documents and history.
Consider just one statement among many by a chief architect of the UN plan: “Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class — involving high meat intake, the use of fossil fuels, electrical appliances, home and work-place air-conditioning and suburban housing — are not sustainable,” claimed Earth Summit Secretary-General Maurice Strong as he ushered in Agenda 21 two decades ago.
A city councilman in College Station, Texas, recently authored a stinging rebuke of Agenda 21 and ICLEI pointing, again, to the organization’s own documents. “It is an insidious, extreme institution that does not represent our citizens, and for our taxpayers to continue to fund it would be ridiculous,” noted Councilman Jess Fields in a piece celebrating the city’s withdrawal from ICLEI late last month.
As in Texas, Agenda 21 is becoming a hot political issue in New Jersey. The John Birch Society and local Tea Party groups have been working feverishly to expose the plan. At a JBS/Tea Party co-sponsored event, JBS Regional Field Director Harold Shurtleff explained the true nature of Agenda 21 to a crowd of over 90 local activists, including four local mayors from Ocean County. Citizens have been expressing alarm in countless letters to the editor as well. And political candidates have made the issue a high priority in their campaigns.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Tennessee have introduced bills to deal with Agenda 21 and its effects on local communities. One bill, which describes the “radical” UN scheme as a push for “socialist/communist redistribution of wealth,” simply condemns Agenda 21. Another measure introduced in the legislature recently would actually protect local communities from the international plot, according to supporters.
The UN will hold its next “sustainability” conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this June — 20 years after the first Earth Summit in 1992 unveiled Agenda 21. And while the global body and many of its totalitarian-minded member governments around the world have high hopes for the summit, opposition — especially in the U.S. — is growing rapidly.