Your Home, Your Town, Your Freedom

Sustainable Development calls for changing the very infrastructure of the nation, away from private ownership and control of property to nothing short of a national zoning system. Every American who cherishes liberty must know that Sustainable Development is our enemy and that it must be ripped from government policy at every level... Arm yourselves first with that knowledge and then step by step - take your community - and then - take America back.

TRANSCRIPT­:

How many times have you wondered what our lives would be like If o­nly the world had read and acted upon the rantings of Adolph Hitler's "Mein Kampf?" Could we have prevented World War II?

If o­nly the world had acted to toss Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto o­n the trash heap, could we have saved the world from a horror that has spread across the globe and enslaved or murdered millions?

Today, I believe you and I have another chance to change history. Today we have a chance to learn of a new enemy to America's liberties. The question now must be asked - will we understand the threat, heed the warnings and take action to stop it?

The fact is, a revolution has taken place in this country and it is now firmly entrenched.

You will find this revolution oozing out of every corner of our society. From text books to television to government policy.

It is for implementation of this revolution that your schools have been transformed to produce the citizens to live in the new revolutionary society.

This is the key to all of the outrages you have witnessed in public classrooms. It is the root to the drive away from academics and sound science. It is the reason that every classroom is filled with discussions of diversity [profiling by group affiliation*] and multiculturalism [collectivist indoctrination system*]. It is the reason children are being indoctrinated to turn away from their parents and the values you have taught them.

They are being prepared to live in a different society than ours. They are not being prepared to be American citizens - but of a global village. That's why they don't need to know about American history and the Constitution and the Founding Fathers - for they are irrelevant.

The education system today is simply an assault o­n your child's attitudes, values and beliefs. It is designed to change and mold them.

If you fail to grasp this fact - you will never succeed in defeating it.

The revolution is anti-property rights. Anti free enterprise. Anti individual liberty. It is anti national sovereignty and national borders. And it is anti Western culture.

The goal of the revolution is to transform the world into feudal-like governance by making NATURE the central organizing principle for our economy and society.

This is what the leaders of the revolution believe:

"Nature has an integral set of different values (cultural, spiritual and material) where humans are o­ne strand in nature's web and all living creatures are considered equal. Therefore the natural way is right and human activities should be molded along nature's rhythms."

An agenda has been set in motion, beginning with United Nations' treaties and agreements, thereby working its way down through federal to state to local government policy.

The quote I just read came from the UN's Biodiversity Treaty.

One of the major tools for implementing the agenda is another UN treaty called Agenda 21. Like the Biodiversity Treaty, it first surfaced at the UN's Earth Summit in 1992. The document was signed by George Bush the First. And it is now part of official policy of our federal government - at every level.

Agenda 21 is the United Nations blue print for the complete restructuring of nations to fit into a proper mold for global governance. Agenda 21 outlines, in detail, the UN's vision for a completely managed society, dictating the process to be used for industry, agriculture, housing development, and even education.

Just listen to a few of the subheadings in Agenda 21 to see how all-encompassing is its reach.

Global Action for Women; Strengthening Workers and Trade Unions; The role of Business and Industry; Transfer of Technology; The Role of Farmers; International Cooperation; Changing Consumption Patterns; Human Settlements; Integrating Environment and development in decision making.

This is not an environmental policy. It is an all-encompassing blueprint to rule from an all-powerful central government.

The common name for the policy in this nation is "Sustainable Development."

Sustainable Development.

If you remember nothing else I say here today, remember these two words: Sustainable Development.

And remember this: If you profess to love America's precious liberty then Sustainable Development is your enemy.

Sustainable Development is the new threat to liberty.

But, Sustainable Development is a horror that hardly anyone in this nation understands or even cares to oppose.

Ignore Sustainable Development at the peril of everything you hold dear - individual liberty, private property, free enterprise, free travel, free association - even life itself.

Under this banner, the battle to diminish the liberty that our Founding Fathers provided is accelerating,

America is different from any nation o­n earth. We are wealthy beyond the comprehension of any society before us. We are strong, powerful and healthy.

For 200 years we have prospered because we have operated under a rule of law that was designed to protect the individual's right to pursue his own life in the way he chooses. To work, to play, to invest - and to own property - and use it in the way that best suits his needs.

The government, by edict of our Constitution, has the responsibility to protect such activities.

This nation is the o­nly o­ne in the history of the world in which the Founding Fathers set out to find a style of government that would guarantee protection of individual rights and property rights.

Nearly every other nation began as a dictatorship or the subject of a king. Most nations of the world still operate that way.

The property in those nations began as the personal property of the king or the government. Those who were granted ownership occupied it at the pleasure of the government - and at the peril of losing it back to that same power whenever it wanted the land.

Not so in the United States of America.

In this nation, from the very beginning, private ownership of the land was undertaken as a right of the people. Government's job was to make sure that no o­ne could unjustly take that land; or control how it was used; or trespass over it against the owner's will.

Such a form of government is not a democracy!

Democracy, the idea that the majority rules, can be a lynch mob crying for action against an individual it has deemed guilty.

If the law says we must first try him - the lynch mob cries - "we can't wait for the slow wheels of justice to turn - somebody must do something - now!!"

Democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting o­n what to have for lunch.

In a Republic, even if the majority dislikes how a property owner uses his land, the government protects his right to do so, so long as it is not infringing o­n that same right of others.

Too bad if he has four cars parked o­n the property (one o­n jacks) or decides to paint his house purple with a green door. The land is his, bought and paid for.

The Founding Fathers, particularly James Madison, took those ideas to heart and put them in the Constitution, particularly in the Fifth Amendment.

It limits government taking of private property, saying no American shall, "be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process; nor shall private property be taken for public use without JUST compensation."

This is a guarantee to Americans that they are safe and free to pursue their own lives without interference of government. In fact, it says the government's job is to protect those liberties so that they can pursue their lives.

Without that guarantee there can be no society. Chaos and tyranny would replace order and prosperity.

Guaranteed by those protections, Americans began to work their land. With their free minds they invented new approaches, and created new jobs, and found new ways to prosper.

As a result, our standard of living improved. Science improved health care. Life expectancy increased. And wealth followed.

Americans began to carve an incredible society out of a barren wilderness. In just a short 200 years we've surpassed ancient cultures.

America became the envy of the world because Americans were free individuals, able to choose their own way of life; able to pursue their own dreams like nowhere else o­n earth. Able to worship and live their lives their way, whether it was politically correct or not.

Ideas mattered. Difference of opinion and the right to express it was an important tool to our freedom - all possible because the right to private property was protected.

Such visions of freedom have become our legacy. Today, as we are attacked by running-dog terrorists, the nation rallies around the mantra of freedom. Flags fly from our homes and car antennas. Bumper stickers declare "God Bless America." Banners shout "Let Freedom Ring."

But do we still have those freedoms gained from the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, or is our pride now based mostly o­n propaganda and memories from another era?

See for yourself.

In a free society, individuals have almost limitless rights to travel where and how they please; arm themselves; buy or consume any product they choose; teach their children their values; own property and build o­n it; start a new business based simply o­n an idea, keep their financial affairs private; and keep their earnings in their pocket for their own use.

In a free society, individuals are free to pursue their lives without the forced intervention of moralists, do-gooders and busybodies.

How are we doing as a free society?

Today, every single o­ne of those things is either regulated or banned. And those moralists, do-gooders and busybodies are called government.

In fact, I believe that the American people, and their every action, are being ruled, regulated, restricted, licensed, registered, directed, checked, inspected, measured, numbered, counted, rated, stamped, censured, authorized, admonished, refused, prevented, drilled, indoctrinated, monopolized, extorted, robbed, hoaxed, fined, harassed, disarmed, dishonored, fleeced, exploited, assessed, and taxed to the point of suffocation and desperation.

Ben Franklin, when asked, "what sort of government have you given us," answered, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

We haven't.

How have we lost it?

We forgot that a free society can o­nly exist when the people are free to own and control their own property.

The fact is, no other rights can exist without property rights. How can you have free speech if you aren't allowed to control your own property?

James Madison said private property ownership "embraces everything to which man may attach value and have a right."

Watch how other liberties are eroded as we lose control of property rights.

Millions of Americans are now forced to stand outside their workplace in order to participate in the legal activity of smoking a cigarette. Even if you own the building, government regulations, tied to occupancy permits, prevent you from allowing your own employees and tenants to smoke inside - if you so desire.

Proponents say this is not an assault o­n property rights - rather a matter of health, to stop a very filthy, dangerous habit. Besides, you say, office buildings are public places.

Then explain how the same regulations are being shifted to regulate smoking in private homes. How can they do this?

Well, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is seeking such regulation, your home is the workplace of repairmen and those who provide services in your home. Therefore, your home should now come under the same regulations that govern office buildings. It's just for the public good.

In a free society, we would simply tell such meddlers to get out of our house. "This is my castle, you can't tell me what to do in my own home," we would say.

And many Americans think they still have the right to say that. o­nly they don't. Government enforcers have the power to charge fines, place liens and jail property owners who do not comply.

It's easy to support such actions, because it's easy to hate smoking. I imagine the majority in this room feel that way about such a filthy habit. I've never smoked. But I have always supported the rights of those who do.

Those of you who hate smoking should remember, warnings have been issued time and time again that o­nce the smoking police used and abused government to destroy this right - then they would turn that power o­nto something else. Perhaps something that you think is your right to do.

And so now they have.

Obesity is the new crusade by the do gooders of the world. How can the fight to stop fat people be an assault o­n private property? They're using the exact same playbook used to assault the tobacco industry. In fact, it's the same lawyers driving the issue.

Did you think that the smoking issue was about health? It's always been about money and power.

This new fight is taking o­n absurd proportions (pun intended). The food police accuse restaurants of selling servings that are too large. They want to regulate the size of the servings. They issue hysterical reports o­n the dangers of Chinese food, Mexican food, french fries, butter, salt, sugar, hot fudge sundaes and almost anything else that's good.

They want to hold restaurants responsible for patrons who drink too much, just like gun-haters want to hold gun manufacturers responsible because some goofball shoots somebody. The food police want fat taxes o­n all sodas and snacks.

It doesn't matter if you want to spend your money o­n these items. It doesn't matter that you might like these things. Ronald McDonald has now replaced Joe Camel as public enemy number o­ne.

Those who have declared themselves to be our protectors have determined that public good is at stake and we are facing an emergency of obesity.

Why is it a public issue? Because we now have socialized medicine and fat people are eating up medical tax dollars - because they aren't as healthy as the tofu munchers.

At least that's how the do-gooders argue it. So the public must decide, with public good at stake.

In a free society, restaurant owners wouldn't worry about such wackos. They would just tell them to stay out of their establishment. But we are no longer a free society.

We have allowed the Food and Drug Administration, the EPA, and a horde of state and local bureaucrats to use licensing policies to blackmail business owners from using their own property as they wish.

Now, every day, newspapers and televisions are full of another hysterical report - usually in the form of a news release - of some new threat to our comfort and security.

Our response - "somebody do something" - "we don't have time to wait for the wheels of justice to turn."

In the state of Maryland, o­ne state delegate provided a terrifying example of disregard for the rule of law.

Recently, the state legislature debated a bill to expand the ability of the police to tap phones, eavesdrop o­n the e-mail and internet activities of suspected criminals - part of a deluge of invasive legislation ripping apart the Constitution in the name of fighting terrorism.

During the debate, Montgomery County delegate Dana Lee Dembrow said, "I realize that this bill basically says you can tap someone's phone for jaywalking, and normally I would say, xNo way.' But after what happened o­n September 11th, I say screw xem."

Screw who? You, me, anyone who gets in the government's way? I thought his motivation was to get the terrorists!

In short, the rule of law in complex times has proven to be deficient. We Americans much prefer the rule of man - it's vastly more efficient.

The fact is, while insisting that they are not infringing o­n property rights, government enforcers have infringed o­n our rights of free assembly, free speech, free expression, and free choice by holding our property hostage.

"You can't smoke that o­n these grounds. You can't eat that in this establishment. You can't do that in your own home."

"What happens if I don't comply?" "The lynch mob and I will take control of your property and stop you."

Step by step, we are eliminating property rights in America. And that means we are eliminating freedom.

In fact, we seem to have o­ne property right left - the right to keep paying taxes and the mortgage payment as we live by the permission of the government.

Who's to blame for this invasion of American property rights?

The bureaucrats? Your elected officials? Environmentalists?

Nope. Not directly.

The American people are to blame. They have created the atmosphere to allow the hordes of government agents and their buddy do-gooders to rush in and grab control.

Too many people in America have accepted the idea that they have the right to tell other people what to do with their private lives and their private property.

And they believe there is nothing wrong with using the power of government to enforce those ideas. They have become the lynch mob.

John Adams said, "The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God - and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it - anarchy and tyranny commence."

Is that not what we have done? Do we want leaders who stand for the rule of law? Or do we select candidates based o­n what kind of goodies they promise to dish out?

The truth is we keep electing politicians who offer the best argument o­n how to use that government power.

We select our leaders today based o­n which o­nes have the best plan for collecting taxes; the best plan for restricting land use; the best plan for providing government-restricted medical care and drug prescriptions and soon, if some get their way, the best plan to control what we eat.

But no, you say, not me! I believe in the Constitution. I believe in property rights. I fight every day to limit the power of government.

My friends, I believe that if I were to go around the room here today and asked for your definitions of property rights I would get at least ten different answers.

Do you support zoning laws? Do you support land-development plans and restrictions? Do you support restrictions o­n where businesses can be placed? Do you support how waterways are used? Do you support historic preservation? Do you support restrictions o­n building designs to create uniformity? Do you support community growth management? Are you an active member of a homeowners' association?

Answer yes to any o­ne of those items and you support telling your neighbor what to do with his property. You are guilty of property rights violations. You have helped diminish our nation's freedoms. You have allowed yourself to become the root of the problem.

Pretty harsh, I know.

And I know that you believe you have legitimate reasons for supporting some of these things.

You've been led to believe that if you don't have zoning then someone can put a stinky old pig farm right next to your beautiful new home. Your property value will go down.

They tell you that if you don't restrict how the water ways are used, they will become polluted. People and corporations, o­n their own, of course, can't be trusted to do the right thing.

Others say that if you don't protect historic places, they will be lost forever. Developers will destroy them all.

Still others warn that if you don't support planned community growth, urban sprawl will suck up all the land! I want my community to stay small and rural.

Yep! Perhaps all of these things are true. But in every case - you are telling someone else how to use their own land.

In every case, you are licensing the government to infringe o­n someone else's property rights.

And what happens if a bigger mob doesn't like what you are doing with your land? o­nce the precedent has been established the monster is out of the bag. There is no turning back.

Once you have legitimized the government's power to restrict use of private property - then it will do what government does best - it will seek more power.

Soon, it will suck up everything in its path until you wake up to find the real 800 pound gorilla (Sustainable Development) living o­n your property. And that too will effect your property values. In fact, it will turn the value to zero.

What is Sustainable Development?

One hint: it is not an environmental policy.

It's not communism. It is a clever mix of fascism and socialism. Perhaps a better term would be "Common-ism."

Common borders; common currencies; common property - common-ism.

Imagine an America in which a specific "ruling principle" is created to decide proper societal conduct for every citizen.

That principle would be used to consider everything you eat, what you wear, the kind of home you live in, the way you get to work, the way you dispose of waste, the number of children you may have, even your education and employment decisions.

Imagine, too, that all of these decisions are called "voluntary" - but that the central government would use its full power to induce what it deems "correct behavior."

Sustainable Development is that "ruling principle" for the implementation of what former Vice President Al Gore said we must all suffer through in order to purify our nation from the horrors of the Twentieth Century's industrial revolution.

In his book, "Earth in the Balance," Gore called it a "wrenching transformation of society."

Consequently, Sustainable Development calls for changing the very infrastructure of the nation, away from private ownership and control of property to nothing short of a national zoning system.

In such a system, the federal government, backed by an army of private, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), like the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, the National Education Association, the National Governors' Association, the Association of State Legislatures, the National Mayors Association and the National Association of County Commissioners will influence, if not dictate, policy in state government and in local communities.

Locally-elected officials will no longer be the single driving force in making decisions for their communities. Most will be done behind the scenes in non-elected "sustainability councils" armed with truckloads of federal regulations, guidelines and money.

"Sustainability" - sustainable communities, sustainable development, sustainable agriculture, -- is not a comprehensive approach to environmental protection.

In the report from the President's Council o­n Sustainable Development, terms such as "harness market forces" describe proposals to impose consumption taxes o­n products that "management" deems to be unsustainable. Remember the fat taxes I mentioned?

That "management" is not elected governments. Rather, it's those appointed sustainability councils and their NGO buddies who basically dictate policy to city councils and county commissioners and state governments.

According to Sustainable Development policies, air conditioning, convenience foods, single-family housing and cars are among the products that have already been determined to be unsustainable.

The logo used in Sustainable Development literature depicts three concentric circles, each labeled with a defining category of the ruling principle. o­ne is labeled "social equity," another, "economic prosperity," and the third, "ecological integrity."

They sound innocent enough. But these three categories encompass every aspect of human life. To achieve the goals behind these three very basic items would demand unlimited government authority to control business decisions; eliminate private property and personal achievement, and create a completely managed society under top-down bureaucratic control.

Social equity and social justice require that the earth's wealth be shared between those who produce and those who don't. It's every welfare program and wealth redistribution scheme ever proposed.

Under Sustainable Development, business is little more than a tool of the social-planning managers. Partnerships between business and government decide what kinds of products are to be produced, who will produce them - and how they will be produced. All must be done in accordance with environmentally correct procedures.

Taxes to force compliance will ensure proper business conduct.

Ecological Integrity: Well, that's just the excuse for the social planners to sucker you and me in and enforce their timeless schemes for power.

In the name of protecting the environment; in the name of social equity and justice; in the name of safety and prosperity; Sustainable Development is fast becoming official policy in the federal government, state government and every large city and small burg in America.

Those behind it are powerful, well funded, well placed and well organized. No matter how crazy the plan, they are succeeding in building support from the American people.

Here's how.

Your community is now a sustainable community. In fact, Santa Cruz is the poster child for Agenda 21. Your elected officials are some of the first in the nation to seek full implementation of the plan.

See if this doesn't sound familiar to you. Have you heard your officials talking about how to curtail growth and block development? Are they talking about historic preservation? Are they talking about how to control business? Has the subject of public transportation come up? Is it getting more difficult to enjoy driving your car around town?

Here is the definition of a sustainable community from the Report of the President's Council:

"Sustainable Communities encourage people to work together to create healthy communities where natural resources and historic resources are preserved, jobs are available, sprawl is contained, neighborhoods are secure, education is lifelong, transportation and health care are accessible, and all citizens have opportunities to improve the quality of their lives."

Now break it down. How do you actually achieve these goals? Again, see if some of these things sound familiar.

How do the people work together? We need some sort of committee or council to join. o­ne that will set a vision for the city.

We need all of the leaders, from elected officials to educators, to

business leaders, to the local chamber of commerce to the local news media. They will put a plan together for the future development of the community.

(By the way, that plan isn't really written by the committee. The blue print will come out of Washington).

Now, to see that the committee can rally achieve its goals, it needs to have some teeth. We need a partnership between the committee and government. A plan will be drawn up and it will be the guideline for legislation for laws and regulations.

Individual land owners and businessmen can't be trusted to share the vision o­n their own. They must have such guidelines to properly protect open space and historic buildings.

The Committee then must control the use of all private property. It must decide what is historic and must be preserved. It must set boundaries beyond which no new homes may be built. It must decide how the community should look. Where open space should be. Where business can be allowed to operate.

But we must do more. The vision can't become reality unless the people in the community have the proper respect for the plan.

They must have the right attitudes, values and beliefs in order to support what the good folks o­n the committee are trying to do for the common good of us all.

One place to start is in the schools. Here are our future generations. It's not as important that they can read and write and perform math problems as it is to understand the importance of living together with your neighbors in a happy, prosperous, safe, well organized community.

They can learn the basic academics o­n their own. But it's vital that they understand our goals.

So let's add some classes to help them obtain the proper outlook for the future.

Teach them that they must work together rather than selfishly setting personal goals.

Teach them that our community o­nly needs certain kinds of workers to help the program along.

Help them select career paths that fit the needs of the community.

Help them understand that personal wants and dreams and ambitions are selfish and will o­nly hurt everyone's future.

How best to teach them these things? Businesses know how to organize. Let's form a partnership with businesses to help the children learn about work, right there in the school.

In fact, we can even let the children take half of each school day to go to the job as a volunteer. To make sure that everyone participates, we'll make it part of their grade.

And to make sure that they always keep the valuable lessons and don't stray from the special teachings they learned in the school to work partnership, let's keep their education going for life.

We'll require that they come back for refresher courses periodically through out their lives. To protect our sustainable community we've got to make sure everyone maintains the proper attitudes, values and beliefs.

To make sure that they do attend life-long learning classes we'll use that partnership with business as an o­n-the-job incentive. That way, life-long learning can lead to better jobs and better pay. It's all very organized.

For the adults, there can be public visioning classes for them, too. After all, we can't fully organize the community around our grand idea if there is resistance from some of the people. That will spoil all of our great plans for the health and security of the community.

So, again, with our business partnerships, and with the help of the Chamber of Commerce, and the schools, we'll work with the folks o­n a neighborhood basis. The United Nations has a program we can use as our guide. Chattanooga TN did it. So can we.

Neighborhood by neighborhood, we'll bring the folks in, teach them how important it is to protect the environment and how evil sprawl can be to our well-laid plans.

And o­nce we have helped them obtain the proper attitudes, values and beliefs, we can set up some life-long learning classes and business partnerships for adults too.

We must take care of our elderly and our sick. Doctors must not be so greedy. We'll set up government-sponsored clinics with tax-paid healthcare so all can afford it. After all, we have a right to be taken care of when we are sick.

Doctors will just have to form a partnership of their own with the committee and accept a decent salary. It's all for the public good.

Cars are a very nasty habit. We must teach our community that everyone should be more open to public transportation. We must build light rail trains and bus lines to get us around to our jobs.

And to make it convenient for everyone, we'll design housing developments around the rail and bus lines so they are within walking distance for everyone.

We'll eliminate cars from the community and that will relieve over-crowded streets. Cars will be banned.

Our homes can be designed in high and low-rise buildings with office space o­n top floors and stores o­n the main floor, with our apartments sandwiched in between. We'll never have to leave the building during our daily routine.

So we don't need yards that have to be mowed with smelly, gas-guzzling, air-polluting, noise-polluting mowers.

We'll just provide parks and other open green space for the people to find recreation.

The committee will actively seek to bring in business to the community to provide jobs for our people. But we o­nly want certain businesses here.

We won't accept those who lack the proper environmental attitudes. They will either comply or be banned from operating in our town.

If we don't have enough jobs, we'll tax the businesses to raise the necessary funds to help those who don't have o­ne. Social equity is key to our committee's plan.

People must have homes and medical care and food. It's their right. It's the duty of those who have money to help those who don't, especially the businesses, which are so rich.

There are other things that the committee will find necessary to ban - in order to assure that the citizens have the opportunity to improve their lives.

Of course with our low and high rise public housing, single family homes that waste precious land won't be necessary. Suburban housing will be banned.

But we must also look after public health for our people. They must eat properly. That's why we can't allow precious farm land in our county to be wasted o­n raising cattle for beef consumption. Beef is harmful to your health, so it will be banned. Wheat and soy will be grown o­n that land instead.

Ever had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner of tofurkey?

With our new healthy diet, as outlined by the committee, we will no longer need things like 7-11's and McDonalds and their unhealthy fast foods and snacks. They will be banned.

There is o­ne more danger to the happiness and security of our community that must be addressed - overpopulation. The committee will decide the proper number of folks who can comfortably live in our community limits.

If we don't control the population, we will be overrun. Some strict guidelines must be imposed, for the sake of the community's well being and for the protection of our environment.

Birth control education and supplies will be a major part of the process for keeping the population down. But if our folks don't heed the committee's warnings, if the population begins to exceed our limits, drastic action will be required.

Limits o­n the number of children a family may have will have to be imposed. Those conceiving children against those limits will have to pay a high price.

Fines, of course. Imprisonment for exceptional cases. Now, what to do about those yet unborn, but illegal babiesx? Action must be taken, for the sake of all of us in the community.

Do you understand where we are headed, my friends?

Name the issue - name the aspect of your life that is not affected by such a mentality.

All of this, and much more is the future under Sustainable Development. This is not about "preserving the environment for future generations."

Sustainable Development is the greatest threat ever perpetrated against American liberty.

There can be no hope of living in a nation of limited government with Sustainable Development as official government policy. The two are diametrically opposed.

As I said, Sustainable Development is a clever mix of socialism and fascism neatly tucked in a green cloak. And many Conservatives throughout the nation are either falling for the deception or ignoring it as a non-threat.

Every American who cherishes liberty must know that Sustainable Development is our enemy and that it must be ripped from government policy at every level.

Americans would never concede their liberty to Swastikas or Hammer and Sickles. But tuck it all in a green blanket for environmental protection and we'll toss it all o­n the fire like a good old fashioned book burning.

The fact is, Sustainable Development is the social planners' dream of utopia. They think they just have to dictate the policies, make you comply and they will create the perfect world.

There is no regard for your opinion. No reservation for your property or business. No hesitation to consider your pain.

And experience is proving them to be right to believe that we will follow their dictates, with few questions and fewer protests.

This is about totalitarianism. It's about controlling every aspect of our lives with decisions made by committees that will grow more powerful and more oppressive with each passing day and each new regulation proposed by newly empowered special interests groups.

There will be no satisfying their lust for power. There will be no part of our lives that is overlooked or uncontrolled

Our homes, our food, our babies, our liberty. There can be no private property under sustainable development. There can be no free enterprise under Sustainable Development. There can be no individual liberty under sustainable development.

Group thought, group plans, group action is how the community will work together. It will be justified as we are constantly told that we are all in this crisis together. A crisis, of course, that has been artificially created by these very policies.

Usually, when politicians talk about Sustainable Development, they talk about environmental programs like the Endangered Species Act; wetlands regulations: conservation easements: water sheds; view sheds; heritage areas; heritage corridors; heritage sites; historic preservation; rails-to-trails; zoning; CARA; energy consumption; greenways; biosphere reserves; Biodiversity; environmental impact statements; global warming and the Wildlands Project.

Please understand that these are simply the tools and excuses being used to dismantle our society and our culture. To beat them we must first understand the character of our enemy and his true goals.

More importantly, we must understand the root of our own culture and the values that produced our nation with the highest standard of living ever known in human history.

We must understand that it is free men operating in free markets, untethered by government regulation that allows men to find solutions to hunger, decent housing, superior medical care, education; overcrowded highways and human happiness.

We must understand that it is o­nly bad government that causes poverty, overpopulation and environmental damage. Totalitarianism, socialism, fascism and almost every other ism are the root of suffering o­n earth.

We must understand that none of this could be happening in this country where our Founding Fathers made property rights the premier right - unless we had first accepted the premise that we have a right to tell our neighbor what to do with his private property.

The logo of Sustainable Development, with it's three concentric circles, should be viewed by all who love liberty as the new swastika of our era. There is no greater threat to our way of life.

It's the reason our schools are producing pliable, illiterate idiots. They are destined to become the citizens of tomorrow to live in the drudgery of the sustainable world.

It should come as no surprise that o­ne can trace the roots of the Sustainable Development concept to the United Nations.

Specifically, the blue print is a United Nations' program called Agenda 21. It is a product of the 1992 UN Earth Summit and outlines the means for a complete restructuring of nations to fit the desired mold.

Agenda 21 outlines in detail the UN's vision of a completely managed society, dictating the process to be used for industry, agriculture, housing development and even education curriculum in the classroom. The federal government's drive to acquire and control massive amounts of land is necessary for the full implementation of Agenda 21.

Sustainable Development is anti-science.

It is anti-knowledge.

It is anti-human.

It is anti-reason.

In a nut shell, Sustainable Development is designed to throw out virtually everything man has learned since the beginning of time.

It is the creed of the mindless savage who seeks brute force over reasonable thought.

And if we don't learn of its evil now,

If we don't heed the warning

If we don't rip it out of every level of government policy by its well-entrenched roots

Then American life, indeed human existence, as we know it, will enter a new dark ages of pain and misery unlike any ever experienced by the community of man.

And still Americans cannot see the danger of dictating to their neighbors as to what they can do with their own property.

Until o­ne day, the social planners come for ours.

And then, we seek to organize to stop what we call the government's land grab. Suddenly, we stand alone o­n our property, warding off federal agents, lamenting that it isn't fair that they are taking our land.

Perhaps o­n that day all Americans will begin to recognize that the o­nly difference between a homeowners' association dictating the color you can paint your front door - and total federal control of society - is the size of the dictator's power. But such a reckoning will come too late.

The United Nations' Agenda 21 and the President's Council o­n Sustainable Development are just homeowners' associations o­n steroids.

And the truth is, none of these schemes could have taken root in America, home of the brave and land of the free, unless we had accepted the very premise that it's ok to dictate how your neighbor uses his property.

And now we face the consequences.

Sustainable Development is being accepted by Americans across this nation because they have been made to feel afraid.

They are afraid of urban sprawl and crowded highways. They fear that their communities will lose their local flavor.

So they look for answers through the heavy hand of more government. That same government that caused many of those problems in the first place.

And the politicians are playing o­n that fear to give themselves more power. That too is how Sustainable Development works.

But it's an agenda that ultimately doesn't work. Because government control of individuals is a bankrupt scheme, proven a failure time and time again throughout history.

And that's why it can be stopped.

You have an excellent start here in Santa Cruz - in spite of the tremendous odds you face. Freedom 21 Santa Cruz is a model for the nation.

You have taken the first steps. You're organizing. And you're learning. The key to victory is to first understand your enemy. Know where he is headed and you can cut him off at every turn.
 

This article is a full transcript of a speech given by American Policy Center President Tom DeWeese at "Your Home, Your Town, Your Freedom" a special event sponsored by Freedom 21 Santa Cruz [now Freedom Advocates] at Peachwoods in Santa Cruz o­n February 11, 2003. This transcript is posted here with permission of the author
 

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