[at-l] entirely deletable department Re: Today in western NC

[Jim Bullard]

On 10/30/06, RoksnRoots at aol.com <RoksnRoots at aol.com> wrote:

>            I read recently a record number of building permits are being
> issued for the Adirondack "wilderness" park. Can you say "False government" people?

Well, if you assume that that "the government" has the absolute power
to stop all building then I suppose you can believe the government is
being "false" in pretending to protect the Adirondack Park while
permitting development.

Fallacy #1: Government is something separate from us.
Fact: We are the government which has as much power as we grant it.
Remember the Declaration of Independence? Government deriving its just
powers from the consent of the governed and all that? I suggest you
read it.

Fallacy #2: All the land in the Adirondacks is public park.
Fact: A lot of the land (nearly half) is private property and (within
limits) subject to development as home or commercial sites. Rules for
development are a combination of state, county and municipal
regulations. Developers spend a lot of time & money figuring out how
to develop to the limits of the rules that govern building in the
Adirondacks. Demand for second homes in places like the Adirondacks is
very high right now and the rules are constantly being challenged by
"the governed" just as our form of government has provided.

The amount of building in the Adirondacks is a serious problem, as is
the nature of the population shift from locals to wealthy part-time
residents. The latter raises the cost of living through higher
property values, higher taxes, etc. which tends to exacerbate the
trend by pricing the traditional residents out of the market. However
simply pointing to a single statistic and taking a cheap shot at
"government" without defining which part (in your view) of our
multi-layer, citizen empowered government is at fault may satisfy you
on some visceral level, but it is utterly unproductive. If you have
some real solutions to offer there are many concerned people in the
Adirondacks and at all levels of government whom I'm sure would love
to hear well thought out ideas on how to resolve these issues. I
suggest you develop your thoughts more fully and address them directly
rather than randomly firing one shot salvos on AT-L.

Jim Bullard
http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/