| Eminent Domain: What Good is it? Suppose there is a change from "Common Land" to private property ownership of land? Open range land in western territory was divided and claimed by private owners for homestead of farms. Land owners would have to trespass across private land to visit each other if the physical means of land is not available to travel. Karl Malden advertised for American Express credit cards. "Don't leave home without it!" At the time that people were escaping across the Berlin Wall, was a joke: the Russians had introduced their own credit card. The Russian slogan was: "Don't leave home!" Humans must be free to choose and act on personal choices, which includes freedom to travel, to cooperate and to trade. "Right of Way" is land where anyone is free to travel. Travel is a right - by the normal and usual means: wheels. The recent Wheel Tax was promoted to tax the "priviledge" of using wheels to travel on public Right of Ways. Just Stay Home unless you walk (Pedestrians are prohibited on many roads.) Perhaps a particular location was the only place to travel? The pass through Sharp Gap is an example where Eminent Domain is a legal tool to avoid being held hostage to a particular land owner. The Huray Abattoir was located in the woods of Sharp Gap near Central Avenue Pike when the Dixie Highway - U.S. 25W was re-routed in 1929 - 1930. That property was bought later to build Interstate 75 through the gap. But the application for public use does not include the cannibalism of evicting unpopular neighbors by majority vote. Federal planners were repudiated by the courts and unable to crowbar the Coster Shop facility of Southern Railroad from the Interstate 75 route. Exciting "Crack The Whip" curves!!! remain today as a testament to an Im-Proper use of Eminent Domain. Knoxville City Council ratified the importance of Eminent Domain power by vote of eight to one, at the 23 Nov. 05 meeting. City Council can demonstrate their eagerness to promote Highway Safety and Public Use by applying the former Coster Shop land (Industrial Property acquired by City of Knoxville) to rebuild the expressway without the dangerous sharp curves. This is an acid test for Saints or Succubi ? "Blight" was the word used by City Council to justify the unencumbered use of Condemnable Power: [Perfect Government] to remediate blighted property. My suspicion is that City Council Members would not recognize "Blight" if struck by a falling Elm Tree. Eminent Domain's Propriety in Knoxiousville Metropulse - 20 Oct. 2005, insights: Joe Sullivan follows in the rut of Socrates, who incited his students to subjugate Athens after Trial of Socrates the city was conquered by Sparta. Community Development Corp. acts as Knoxville's agent for redevelopment plans. This city agency gets its Eminent Domain authority directly from the state to carry out council-approved plans (the muscle to encourage property owners). "a process that's stood the city in good stead for many years." Andrew Jackson and TVA may represent Joe Sullivan's ideals for their work to recycle blighted property from Cherokee Indians, and farmers along the Little Tennessee River: to "Buy low and Sell high." The plot of Mark Twain's Puddinhead Wilson is the life of a boy who was switched with another at birth, and grew up to sell his own mother down the river. Does Community Development Corporation serve the public (to cannibals) by selling residents' propriety down the river? Economic development per se is not a valid purpose for initiating a Economic Growth redevelopment plan in Tennessee, unlike the Conn. of New London. (Kelo versus New London, Connecticut) Areas that have been determined to be blighted can be addressed - including property that is NOT blighted in that area. Diogenes was lucky! He could pick up his tub and lamp and move to a better neighborhood if determined blight condemned his address. The King was immune from blight because his neighborhood; by definition - was the Aristocratic neighborhood. [ A House-boat On The Styx ] In many cases, remediation of blight is all that's required. "Blight" and Beauty are in the eye of the reformer. Fascism retains "private owners", but government has absolute authority to control property and development. Convicts serving 11 - 29 at the county workhouse, smash rocks and pick up roadside litter to serve a Valid Public Purpose. State government of Tennessee leased convicts to coal mine operators during the 1890s to increase revenue. Mine operators and the state managed convicts by the same principles that land is now managed for Public Purposes. Did the state arrest and convict more people to increase revenue? Will the city of Knoxville reduce the time length of yellow signals to get more fines from automatic red-light cameras? Miners fought the Coal Creek war to resist operating Tennessee Government as a business, and to protect private jobs. President Franklin Roosevelt attempted to conscript coal miners to mine coal as national Public Service during World War Two. Tellico Dam was planned and built by Tennessee Valley Authority to to create valuable lakefront land. Condemnation of land was enforced to gain profit by removing owners from land to be re-sold. All Land in Soviet Russia served a "Valid" Public Purpose as collective farms (Plymouth Colony abandoned this scheme in 1622). Thirty million people died to achieve Stalin's pogrom: exercised with the same great care and confidentiality as Hitler's Eugenics plan in Fascist Germany. Ghosts were created ! ! A Ghost is a "Spirit" (Mind that chooses) - separated from a body. Justice is recognition that: each person "Owns" the effects of choices and actions. Property is the means of sustaining one's body. The "Right" to Own one's body implies the Property Right to own the Effects achieved by the Cause of - choice directed work. Joe Sullivan and David R. Arning (23 Dec.2004 letter to editor) equate Control of property with "unrestricted license". Ownership without control is a Circle apart from Roundness. Prisoners shackled in a slave labor camp are unable to control those bodies. A body without a mind is a Zombie. Is the Circle broken? City Council should not interject itself into implementation of redevelopment plans it mandates because this would serve to politicize and discombobulate a process exercised with great care and often confidentiality." Ain't this claptrap a hoot! Karl Marx's Dialectic Materialism wasn't such a thigh slapper to entertain rubes in burlesque houses! City Council should not interject itself into the abattoir for good reason: They may faint when they watch sausage being made, and be interjected into the process! Doesn't this all seem familiar? Of course it is! "Startrek" episodes about the Cyborgs have a similar scheme. Borgs shared a group consciousness which allowed them to mind meld and achieve unity of thought to achieve "The Plan".. Will Joe Sullivan bring Kool-Aid to share next weak and tell us: How we become "ONE" and achieve purposes of The Plan, in this backward Borg? (Timothy Leary and Jim Jones did this!) [The Logomachist] Private owners are in business "just to make money" Rosa Parks' money was just as good as white people's money. Valid Tool: of Confiscation How did the J. Allen Smith house (Smith-Coughlin house) begin to serve a "Valid Public Purpose"? The letter to editor by Mr. David R. Arning, of Palmetto Preservation Works in Greenville, S.C. corrected our "inaccurate" perspective. Metropulse - 23 Dec. 2004, Incoming Mail: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that "Individuals and TYRANNY private entities do not now enjoy, nor have they ever had The Freeman unrestricted license with respect to real property." What imbeciles we have been! We failed to understand the fundamental issue of "Valid" Public Purpose. Suppose a neighbor builds a house of salvaged wood pallets, tin, and tarpaper. Other neighbors build houses. But Mr. Smith was prosperous, and hired Mr. Barber the architect to design his house. Mr. Smith paid for the design, and paid to build it. He could have protected what he bought with ugly outside walls, but he enjoyed the compliments. Vanity has its price, but he died before admirers began to assert their rights to control the house which he "owned". Neighbors demolished their old shacks and built new houses. The Coughlin family bought Mr. Smith's old house, and now want a modern, comfortable house. They put a "For Sale" sign in the yard and called Knox Heritage. And encouraged admirers of the house to buy it. Cherokee Country Club bought the house and notified the city that it was to be demolished. But wait ! ! ! Admirers enacted a city statute stating that the Smith House is a: Venerated Historic Object and serves a Valid Public Purpose. Admirers got a court order to prevent demolition and notified owners. Requisite Public Notice was not provided to owners, who attempted "unrestricted license" to Destroy the house. Delay of notice was the legal detail which deprived the public of their valid right to the house. You discover that the U.S. Flag you bought is a Venerated Object. What other Venerated Objects are on your land? Neighbors cut trees for firewood. Try to cut down your cherry tree and neighbors stop you from exercising unrestricted license. Your tree is a Venerated Object serving a "Valid" Public Purpose. (George Washington fessed up!) Why did the Admirers who were just ga-ga about the Smith House, hide their money when it was for sale? These freeloaders claimed a "Historical mandate" to seize control of that aristocratic house, and send the bill to property owners for maintaining the building. Tom Milligan began with a bucket and a sign - in front of the homely Airplane Filling Station. He worked to collect donations from stingy people, and sell T-shirts: to buy and preserve what he admired. Jim Clayton, Powell business owners, Knox Heritage, and Knox County taxpayers helped save the Airplane. Mr. Arning believes it is "valid" to seize control of real estate from owners. Karl Marx wrote that the machines we use - control the way we think. Did Karl Marx, Timothy Leary, and Mr. Arning use similar machines? Tom Milligan did not use the political machine that destroyed the Smith House. Cratylus |