IT'S NOT JUST A HOUSE, IT'S MY HOME

 

 

 

 

Joyce Morrison
July 17, 2004
NewsWithViews.com

Even mainstream media has picked up on the story of five Supreme Court judges deciding your home is no longer your home, but can be “taken” at any time they decide for the “better good” or “good of all.” If the Constitution is still valid they are passing it off as “public use.”

Small businesses that had been in families for generations and one home of a couple who were in their 80s and lived in this home for 50 years will be kicked out following the judges ruling in favor of eminent domain to build a riverside development with a fancy hotel and office complex.

What kind of judges do we have who could arrive at such a decision to no longer give the right of the poor, middle class, or elderly to safely live and be self employed. I think we know the answer....they are named Ginsburg, Breyer, Souter, Stevens, and Kennedy.

We did have four who were not totally socialist in their thinking. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor expressed her thoughts on her colleague's ruling of the case of Kelo verses The City of New London when she said, “Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."

Across the country, reports of eminent domain abuses have become staggering. Until now, if an individual could afford the court battle, he had the right to defend the “takings” of his property. This decision says he no longer has that right.

Tax Incremental Financing districts, called TIFs, were initially meant to help cities with blighted areas but they now work hand in hand with eminent domain. Blight is what the ‘powers that be’ determine is blighted and it might be your home, beauty shop, auto repair or whatever. Eminent domain is used to get rid of you.

In TIF districts, the property tax dollars stay in the area bringing in the economic development projects rather than being used by the taxing district as a whole.

A corn field could be designated blighted, taken by eminent domain and designated a TIF District and then filled with expensive homes. But instead of property tax revenue going to the county, tax dollars on these expensive homes stay in the “blighted district” to be spent on self indulgent extravagant projects.

The taxpayers in the rest of the county pay for schools, roads, county and township expenses, policing and all other necessary governing expenses enjoyed by the luxury home owners and the people in the TIF District.

The transportation department has the “right of eminent domain” to build highways. There have been reports where they have abused these powers to obtain property, not to build a highway, but as a “favor” to local government to clear an area for more lucrative development.

There are “quick take” powers given to certain governing bodies so a single “hold out” can’t delay a project. They take your property and negotiate later.

With all the uncertainties in this world, if there is one place we should feel secure, it is in our home. We certainly should not have to give up our property for a hotel, Wal-mart or Lowes, or any other store or development just because it would bring in more revenue for the local government than our meager home or small business.

Even if you are paid what is considered “just compensation,” that does not cover the time and frustration in finding another home and moving. Will “just compensation” be enough to find comparable property?. Will “just compensation” pay for heritage in a home that has stayed in your family for generations? And where would you go? What about the elderly making a move? How much “just compensation” can replace lifelong neighbors?

Now is the time for every federal, state, county and municipal official in every state to hear loud and clear from the people in opposition of this injustice and violation of the Constitution. There is nothing stopping the takings of your home or more tragically, your parent’s or grandparent’s home.

The following little story was sent to me although I don‘t know the author, it has a moral lesson we should take seriously.

A Mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. "What food might this contain?" He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house." The pig sympathized but said, "I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse, But there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow. She said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you. But it's no skin off my nose."

So the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well. She died. So many people came for her funeral the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it doesn't concern you, remember that when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

In the book of Genesis, Cain said about Abel his brother to our God: "Am I my brother's keeper?"

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and be willing to make that extra effort to encourage one another.

I encourage EVERY person to protest to their elected officials. If you do not stand up for your rights and freedoms, no one’s home or business will ever be safe again.