Letters to the editor: Too much government control on private property

By Newell Hales Salina

Editor:
In 1848, “The League of the Just” later known as the “Communist League” commissioned Karl Marx to pen the “Communist Manifesto”. These so called political “Do-gooders” had no idea what pain, misery, bloodshed, and political devastation they had unleashed onto the world with hundreds of millions suffering the harsh realities of socialism and communism. The Communist Manifesto is the antithesis of the Constitution of The United States. The Constitution of the United States is based on the premise that rights are granted by God and protected by government. In contrast, the Communist Manifesto and the United Nations Charter are both based on the premise that rights are granted by government and can be revoked by government at any time at the will and pleasure of those holding office, leaving God completely out of the picture. Sadly one only has to do a little research to see how far America has moved away from the Constitution of the United States toward the dangerous and deadly path of Communism.
The zoning ordinances of Salina City are based on the premise that items are not allowed unless they are specifically spelled out or “Permitted” in a particular zone. If it isn’t permitted or allowed, then you can’t build or do anything on your own property unless you can get a change in the zoning ordinance or special permission by who? The government. What philosophy does that more closely follow? Judge for yourself.
Several months ago I began the process to install a windmill to generate electricity in my back yard to help supplement my power bill, because I fear that utility rates will follow the path of motor fuel and double or quadruple in the near future because of the lack of new power plants that uses clean cheap coal or nuclear energy. Since no one in Salina had ever pursued to install a windmill before, it obviously was not included in any permitted use category. I began to lobby members of the zoning commission and members of the city council to change the law to permit windmills in Salina. There was a public hearing held and the law was eventually changed. One of the stipulations is that I contact my neighbors within 500 feet of my property line and have them sign a petition with eighty per cent saying that they had no problems with my wind mill. That process I completed. Then I find out that I must inform those same neighbors who signed my petition, that there will be another public meeting so that they can protest their own signatures, thus delaying my project, again. I was told the reason for this is that I may have “coerced” their signatures. Go Figure.
The meeting was held, no one protested their own signatures, and the wind mill was installed and is working very well when the wind blows.
Karl Marx wrote “The first Condition for transition to Communism” or plank is “Abolition of property in land…”. Is not zoning away personal property rights the same as abolition of property in land? When laws are passed restricting the rights of one, all suffer those same restrictions and all suffer the loss of individual liberty. Shame on us for letting that happen to us and to our children.
Now I’m not saying that I believe that the members of the Salina planning and zoning commission are Communist, because they’re not. I am saying that the very idea that government, at any level, that assumes or “grants” God given inherent rights or demonstrates “the control your neighbor” mentality and attitude which is so prevalent in today’s society, is Marxist doctrine and anti-American.
I think that it is critical that our laws should be revisited, locally, State wide, and especially on the Federal level to bring them back in harmony with the Constitution of the United States, individual liberty, and the inspired vision of our Founding Fathers which made this Nation the Greatest on Earth.