Just before marrying, a couple finds out they’ve crossed paths as toddlers; documented via family photos. Sweet story indeed and it goes to show the world is really small in some ways.
- “A farmer… has turned his home into a fort equipped with a homemade cannon and fireworks to fight off government eviction in an ongoing land dispute… surge of violent confrontations triggered by land seizures…”
- "I'm a farmer. My whole life depends on farming. If I surrender, I have nowhere to go."
- "I'm a law-abiding citizen…"
- "I must protect my rights. I believe that the lower-level officials are out to harm the people, but higher-level leaders are enlightened," he said.
We actually have people all over these great United States in similar situations; hunkered down fending off the government. They rarely make the news and this man isn’t in the US at all.
“China has witnessed a surge of violent confrontations triggered by land seizures as officials and businesses seek to cash in on a nationwide property boom by evicting residents and developing their land.” But DAMN that sounds all too familiar to what we see going on around the US! I don’t know about China but I do know they are taking more than land here in the US. Land here is usually taken by eminent domain and raising taxes followed by tax foreclosure while cash, vehicles, livestock, pets, etc., etc. are being seized mostly by civil seizure. Damn, we sure have perfected government theft of property in my opinion!
“In late April, a Communist Party official in Henan province was detained after he ordered a truck driver to run over a protester in a land dispute. The protester was killed.” Hell, we wouldn’t even detain the “official”; he/she would get a complete pass if they’d killed the protester with an electroshock weapon! I guess that shouldn't surprise me. Mostly, we stand by and let them take what belongs to us putting up little fight because we think there's a system that will protect our rights; that we'll at least get a day in court. That belief is so fundamental that people aren't believed when they point out how very broken that system is; that it no longer provides any protection at all for most of us. We do not protest physically when we should. We need to relearn that skill and join together in objection when those who exercise their rights to protect themselves are harmed. Are we really bigger wimps than the Chinese farmers now?
We’ve long provided our own food through a network of small farmers. Now it’s commercialized to the point we’ve largely lost quality controls. Now we attack all livestock operations for alleged “cruelty” to animals. We’ve tanked our home property market already while throwing money at irresponsible Wall Street and Big Business. Will we be joining the world food shortage/inflated food prices soon? I suspect we will; arguably, we’ve already thrown a significant portion of our society into that situation as the unemployment remains high and food assistance falls short of their needs.
I just don’t understand. For about the first 8-10 generations we seemed to be trying to achieve the dream that is the American Experiment. Many others around the world wanted to follow our lead. Around the time of the bicentennial, around 1976, things changed. We stopped teaching civics and citizenship to children; we started formally teaching intolerance through mandated tolerance, the ultra intolerance. Now we’re either closing in on or have surpassed China in our complete disregard for fundamental property rights and due process; some of the foundations of this country. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON AND HOW DO WE STOP IT?
It’s a small world indeed and that is NOT a good thing if we’re following China’s lead OR it turns out we’ve surpassed China and now they are following our lead on a march to the underworld. Should the Statute of Liberty be changed to read: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here?
Ah, I see this is my 4th post of the day. I get behind sometimes as I see the atrocities stacking up and some days it's hard to blog; to hang on to hope. Have we already become the Red Monster I was taught to hate and fear as a child?