- Our nation was founded by courageous
individuals that undertook a global pilgrimage seeking escape from ruthless
government-sponsored religious oppression. When fleeing one European
state and seeking shelter in another, they became increasingly convinced
that the best protection from government and religious persecution would
be in The New World.
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- Government-mandated religions, and vice
versa, created the abominable partnership of church and state. There
has always been this alliance fostering the horrific persecution of those
not willing to be dominated by either. But there is a world of difference
between domination and tolerance, and the creation of a "New World"
free from religious/government oppression. A beneficent guiding influence
of a general religious belief, a guiding influence devoid of force and
unquestioning obedience, is indeed a preferred state of the state.
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- George Washington put it this way: "Reason
and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail
in exclusion of religious principle."
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- It is clear that our nation's beginnings
were heavily founded in religion. It is also a known fact that when
the religion of the New World progressed to the Puritanical influence,
it resulted in the grave injustices of the Salem witch trials. Abuses
in religion justify the abolition thereof in precisely the same way that
bad government justifies the abolition of all government.
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- The heavy influence of religion in the
founding of our nation and the English liberal [libertarian] influence
upon human rights, led naturally the quest to discover God's purpose in
creating man. The classical liberal influence famously articulated
by Englishman John Locke summarized God's purpose in creating humanity
to enable the enjoyment and participation by all individuals in all that
could be experienced in His creation. It was the responsibility of
individuals to temper their behavior such that they did not infringe upon
the rights of others to enjoy the same. To affect this concept, Locke
offered the three inalienable rights of man: life, liberty and property.
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- The Founders incorporated these three
concepts into the Declaration of Independence, which not only identified
inalienable rights, but nullified the "divine right" of kings
and monarchs to rule, as well as defining government as an artificial creation
of the people. The artificial entity of government could be terminated
anytime the people decided the government was no longer the servant and
was becoming the master.
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- Clearly, no human being can experience
anything here and now on Earth in death; therefore, liberty and property
follow naturally from the inalienable right to life. But life can
be made miserable by the restraints put upon it by those using force to
restrain the human freedoms and choices of individuals. History has
defined the greatest threat to personal freedom as one's own government.
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- Government is governed by politics, the
practice by which non-contributory, non-producing members of society fool
the citizens into believing that what they, the politicians, contribute
is more than just a meaningless void. Politics fills that void, the
latter best defined by the total absence of honesty, integrity, creativity
and hard work, which will never result in a meaningful or useful product
or service.
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- Liberty is defined, therefore, as either
the total control and restraint the people put upon government and politics,
and the resultant enjoyment of everything in God's creation. This
must be tempered by each individual's respect for the rights of others,
or simply the constant application of the Golden Rule. If one were
to live by the Golden Rule, as well as to be true to God's Ten Commandments,
there would be little trouble between both individuals and nations.
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- This brings us finally to the rights
of individuals concerning private property. Although the concept
is merely described as "property," the focus is, of course, upon
private real estate. For most individuals store all their property,
real and chattel, within the premises they own. If the state, meaning
government, can seize the real estate property of an individual, then by
default, they can, therefore, seize all property.
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- The Founders did not use Locke's term
"property;" instead, the used the phrase, "pursuit of happiness."
Since none of these gentlemen are living, the use of the phrase defining
Locke's third inalienable right is subject to varied interpretation.
The interpretation attributable to this effort is that property, more specifically,
real property, is the underlying basis of individual freedom. As
life is God-given, so is the God-given liberty to enjoy all that is his
creation. The greatest threat to liberty is the political state.
The purpose of real property is to give enterprising, hardworking men and
women, the ability to enjoy life and liberty. In other words, private
property is that which human beings input themselves in terms of legal
conversion in order to enjoy both life and liberty. Without real
property, both life and liberty cannot be sustained.
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- Legal conversion refers to what individuals
actually do with their private real property to sustain life and liberty.
Some citizens acquire acreage, cultivate the land or engage in animal husbandry,
and convert their land into farms to produce crops, raise sheep, cattle,
or to grow wheat, and so on. Others converted their real estate holdings
to shops, stores, blacksmith forges, inns and taverns. Private property
was the key to American agriculture, industry and retail leadership throughout
the world.
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- Modern day American politicians have
ruined America's greatness. Through damaging political arrangements
with the politicians of other competing nations, politicians here have
created income tax structures and environmental restraints motivating large
corporations to move jobs and plants outside of America and overseas where
lower labor costs, less environmental restrictions and lower taxes provide
their political corporate financial supporters tax, labor and regulatory
advantages. This produces more profits for the ruling corporate profiteers
and more payoffs [campaign contributions] for the politicians. Everybody
makes out, except America and the American people.
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- Virtually the last vestige of an America
that once was is private property, and now American politicians are once
again salivating and tripping over their tongues to figure out how best
to steal this last remnant of the American Dream; and the answer is eminent
domain.
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- The grand and mighty Supreme Court of
the United States of America {All rise!] has adjudicated in its warped
and twisted Marxist decision that private property no long exists.
Instead of enforcing the rule of law, they have decided to tell Thomas
Jefferson, John Locke, the Continental Congress all to go to hell, as they
enforce Principle 1 of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' vision of the perfect
and most advanced countries in their Kelo v City of New London:
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- 1.
Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public
purpose.
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- Isn't this, the first and foremost principle
of communism, what the Kelo decision sets forth? By deciding that
a group of politically motivated individuals in a large self-serving group,
either a political party that controls government, or an element of government
itself, now can better decide on how to utilize property they didn't pay
for, for property they don't hold deed or title to, and land they didn't
"work" or maintain, is the ultimate in tyranny that can only
equate to the tyranny of a Caribbean or Central/South American "banana
republic." This is America's "Supreme" Court?
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- It started with concepts of "urban
renewal" wherein it was felt by politicians that government, meaning
politicians, is best suited to determine what is blighted, what property
is to be seized and which contractor is best suited to do the work in light
of the gift of seized and owner-undercompensated land deserving of "re-development."
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- Where eminent domain the power
of government to take private real estate property had previously
been exercised only for the greater common good [communism] now, with the
issues of "urban blight" AND the issue of creating greater tax
revenues for local governments, government condemnation proceedings against
private real property owners transferring private property to money-making
projects to politician-selected private contractors, developers and new
and richer private owners who will increase tax revenues, a Pandora's Box
of political abuse has been launched by five black-cloaked communists.
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- Eminent domain seizures by government
to seize property from a citizen with less means in order to transfer it
to the rich and to wealthy corporations to assist them in "earning"
greater profits to pay "higher" taxes, is criminal extortion
and theft. It is the corrupt politicians' means for stealing something
that doesn't belong to them. But instead of using a gun, a club,
a knife or blunt instrument, the politicians are again using their favorite
weapon against the people: law. And as usual, it is not law based
upon justice, fairness or equity. It is instead the law of the political
jungle.
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- ©2006 THEODORE E. LANG All
rights reserved
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- Ted Lang is a political analyst and freelance
writer.
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