SELLING OUT THE AMERICAN DREAM

 

 

 

 

Joyce Morrison
July 24, 2004
NewsWithViews.com

Like many other states, Illinois is in major financial trouble. Instead of cutting pork to work out their financial woes in the last legislative session, they let the governor raid more than 200 dedicated funds of millions of dollars to make a weak attempt at balancing the budget.

Their raid didn't include the Open Space Land Acquisition and Development Fund (OSLAD), the Natural Areas Acquisition Fund and Conservation 2000 funds. Not one cent was touched. These funds will receive full re-appropriations for FY06 for ongoing projects.

Health and welfare programs, pension funds, and almost every other fund was tapped, but not the fund to buy your property for the government. This property will be taken off the tax rolls and it will never be in the hands of a family again.

The eminent domain decision handed down by the Supreme Court basically said �Sorry little guy, you don�t own anything,� and with all the acquisition dollars in the federal and state coffers, you might as well forget about the American dream of being a property owner. You�ll never feel safe. Forget about the reasons provided in the Constitution for protection from the abuse of eminent domain because the judges appear to have the power to over-ride the Constitution.. Henry Lamb articulately explains the difference between public use and public purpose in his article High Courts Hit New Lows.

It appears what you thought was your property can be made into a park, wetland or mall and you can pitch a tent for housing for all they care��that is if you can find a spot where zoning and ordinances will let you.

This is happening in every state. One thought would be, �why don�t we just turn the whole country into one big open space playground?� Since many of our jobs are outsourced anyway, we will all have more time to play. We�ll enjoy �recreation such as hunting, hiking, birding, camping, wildlife and wildflower viewing,� if the environmentalists will permit us in �their open space and parks� which the government purchased with our dollars. Won�t we have fun?

Forget about food��farmers are going broke everyday regardless of the subsidy myth many have been led to believe. You know about subsidy, but do you know about parity? We won�t need the farm land, as we will be importing most of our food anyway. We�re already importing a lot of food -- but if CAFTA is passed, we�ll import more food and lose more jobs. We could soon depend on Third World countries for food as we do for oil. Since we won�t have jobs, I guess the government will pay for the imported food.

Speakers at the Missouri Farm Bureau�s Commodity Conference this past winter agreed that corn and soybean producers have two options: get bigger or get out. Six out of ten farms are having financial problems, while 90% of farm income comes from off the farm sources.

�Commodity consolidation in the agricultural industry is increasing and the opportunities for farmers are fewer and fewer. The consolidation is driven by economic globalization, according to a Farm Bureau article by Missouri editor, Chris Fenewald.

We won�t be paying income taxes if we have no work, so who will be paying for our food and housing? Will we be stacked into Agenda 21�s high density Smart Growth affordable housing and if there is a fire or major disaster, we will all go up in smoke together? Some elitists might view that... as a means of population control!

Since farming is no longer important in the United States, we could switch all the land to open space, refuges, parks, and wetlands where the land cannot be put to any practical use. According to an article in the Rocky Mountain News, �Preserves to be mapped and the project will detail all open-space land around Colorado.�

�Coloradans have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade to buy up open-space land, and they may soon know exactly what they have received for all of that money. GOCO, or Great Outdoors Colorado, the state agency that spends lottery-fund proceeds on open space, has contracted with a Colorado State University laboratory to map all of the protected open space in Colorado� according to the article. The agency has spent more than $236 million on open space since 1994. GOCO also funds ballparks and other recreation facilities, spending that is counted separately. Additionally, counties from Larimer to Douglas have been spending tens of millions to acquire open space and park land.�

In Montana, the Forest Service paid nearly $1.92 million for ranch land in the Pryor Mountains, using Land and Water funds. "This is a great day for the public," said David Schmid, Beartooth District ranger. "They will be managed for dispersed recreation such as hunting, hiking, birding, camping, wildlife and wildflower viewing. Schmid added, "Management emphasis for these lands will be to provide quality wildlife habitat for species such as mule deer, black bear, raptors, grouse and migratory songbirds. Historical elk range and habitat for Yellowstone cutthroat trout also occur on the lands."

�A temporary travel restriction order for motorized use on Road 2144 (from the west edge of HES 168 to the SE corner of HES 594) will be in place until after resource surveys and inventories are completed. Travel by foot or horse is allowed,� according to the report.

Apparently you can�t ride anything but a horse in the Pryor Mountains, but in the Shawnee Forest in Southern Illinois, the Forest Service and environmentalists want to limit horse trails. It is becoming more apparent the Forest Service and other agencies along with the NGO�s such as the Wilderness Society don�t want you in �their� pristine parks and open spaces.

The Wilderness Society says the BLM Must Not Allow Bulldozers in Wilderness! �The rivers, mountains and canyon country of our parks, wildlife refuges, monuments and other protected areas are all part of America's heritage, meant to be protected for us and for future generations. But the Bush Administration has issued a regulation that allows states and counties to sidestep established checks and balances and take over thousands of miles of trails and routes across these magical places,� the Wilderness Society said.

Does that mean the Bush Administration said the local folks who live in what they consider to be wilderness will have a right to assert their opinion -- contrary to the environmentalist�s wishes? Could the forests be better protected from fire if there were fire trails for the equipment to get through?

If you are blessed to be young and healthy, hiking and camping is wonderful. But if you are physically impaired or have health problems which do not permit the rugged exertion of some of these activities, does that mean you have no business in �their� open space, refuges, forest and parks unless you can walk or ride on un-motorized transportation?

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If we find ourselves existing in a Socialist society that plans where we live, what we eat, what we own, where and if we work, what freedoms will we have left? We may not have freedom, but �they� tell us we�ll sure have fun.

� 2004 Joyce Morrison - All Rights Reserved