- In the very same week that the Supreme Court of the United
States declared that the God-given right of private property, first articulated
for US in the Declaration of Independence, no longer existed in America
via the Court, s judicial decree, my town's government decided to convert
all private homeowners into commercial "operators. I will explain
this legalistic anomaly in depth later, but the point I wish to emphasize
immediately is that this latest absurdity of government-generated word
trickery lead to a meeting between the township administrator and me.
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- The top bureaucrat of the town let me know that he knows
there are those who "hate government. I, of course, readily admit
to this, yet I,m not aware how I,d blown my cover. I wore a white shirt
and a tie for the interview, compared to his colored golf shirt, and conducted
myself most cordially and in a reserved, respectful manner. He had requested
the meeting after the avalanche of correspondence and alternative proposals
I mailed the town government to counter the draconian ordinance they were
contemplating. But nothing got their attention faster than the full-page
article I authored in the county newspaper and my published letter to the
editor in the local newspaper.
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- The local government's assault on private property rights
takes the form of an ordinance which codifies ordinary taxpayers and homeowners
as commercial septic tank system "operators. The unlawful attempt
here is to convert residents from mere septic tank users to commercial
type "operators so they can be prosecuted as such. As private homeowners
disposing of simple sanitary waste of less than 2,000 gallons daily, they
are now exempt from commercial restraints and punitive measures.
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- But consider the opposite: supposing I wanted to convert
my two-car garage into an auto repair business, or my wife wished to capitalize
on her culinary skills by converting our kitchen and dining room to a restaurant
- would the town's zoning laws allow this? Of course they wouldn,t. But
when government sees the need for expediency, no law or ethical and moral
standards are ever permitted to come between the State and its desires.
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- Digressing for a moment, there is a need to elaborate
on the applicable state laws involved here. In my home state of New Jersey,
the applicable environmental law is found in Title 7 of the New Jersey
Administrative Code. Our town borders on a large lake, which the New Jersey
Department of Environmental Protection has listed as being continuously
polluted by inadequate homeowner septic systems.
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- On the basis of population per square mile, New Jersey
is the most densely populated state in the nation. The lake has accumulated
pollution over the last 100 years or so, which has been exacerbated by
the gradual conversion of the popular summer resort area to a year-round
community. Small summer homes and cottages were made permanent residences
with little thought given to the proper planning, design and construction
of septic systems.
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- In spite of my state of mind as regards the double-barreled
assault on private property during that particular week, and also in spite
of the fact that I once organized my neighbors to fight another city hall
royal screw-up twenty years ago, I really didn,t hate the State up until
that point in time; I was, rather, leery of it. Not anymore! I have fast-forwarded
to where I hate, loathe and despise the State.
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- Whether it is local town government trying to weasel
themselves onto your property and manipulating your property rights, then
apologizing for the state government's "putting pressure on town government
to "clean up the lake, or when the Morris County [NJ] Tax Board decides
tax rates in my town are too low considering the skyrocketing prices of
homes in our area, the State, at all its levels, delivers only one undesirable
commodity: force! And nothing shows the State's contempt for people more
than the Katrina disaster in New Orleans.
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- There are those who continue to bluster as regards the
State's "incompetence; sorry, I no longer buy into that. The actions
of FEMA in cutting temporary communications, and in misdirecting deliveries
of bottled water and food rations, and the unconscionable actions of the
Bush regime in sending in heavily armed military forces instead of emergency
aid and rescue workers in a timely manner, and the rejection of all the
emergency assistance offered by so many nations of the world, says it all.
The State, in the form of the Bush administration, hates US! And the
statist gangsters might as well know it - we are beginning to hate them
right back!
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- So when the State tried to throttle the anti-war protestors
of the 60s, and cops were busting the heads of long-haired hippies in sandals,
the pigs of state had a slogan: Next time you need help, call a hippy!
These days, it now seems excellent advice!
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- © 2005 Ted Lang - All rights reserved
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- Ted Lang is a political analyst and freelance writer.
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