Why I support HOME RULE- From Virginia Wald yesterday.. All friends from Jefferson County, PLEASE give this a read: WHY I SUPPORT THE HOME RULE/CHARTER PROCESS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY Although the word “obfuscation” has taken on a new meaning for me lately, the charter process that we get to vote on this November is really quite simple. But before I get to my two pertinent points let me start out with the bedrock fundamental concept to build from: This is Article I, Section 1 from the Washington State Constitution: ARTICLE I DECLARATION OF RIGHTS SECTION 1 POLITICAL POWER. All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights. So my first point is: I refuse to settle for less than this. As it now stands, our un-chartered Commission form of county government leaves all decisions pertinent to our well-being and the well-being of the resources of our county, up to the discretion of three elected officials. Albeit, our Commissioners are “popular” and not considered bad guys at all. However, and I digress here, suppose they indulge in some form of bad judgment, like our recent city officials did, seeking to put in smart meters which would have had no benefit for our citizens and would have cost us, the taxpayers, $3 million dollars besides putting us in thrall to a Fortune 100 Corporation, Honeywell, for the next 15 years, and all of this with “no public input”. With the type of County government we have now, there is little we could do to change it. However, with a Charter form of county government we have the right of initiative and referendum which would effectively suspend legislative action (RCW 35A.29.170) and with enough valid signatures the issue can be approved or rejected by the voters in a referendum election. I personally am a believer in the principle of collective wisdom which is: The People collectively have more wisdom than any one individual. And, as popular as our current commissioners are, one of them did get in the face of a charter petition worker, saying that “the People are not smart enough to govern.” That kind of contradicts Article I, doesn’t it? My second point is this: we need a Bill of Rights to go along with our charter. But first imagine this: our current United States Constitution without a Bill of Rights. What rights would we have? Damn little, I think. Our current Bill of Rights is the field where all of our individual rights are hashed out in the courts. The Constitution, on the other hand is all about property and the rights of property. In order to drive home the importance of my second point I need to give you a brief synopsis from a Thomas Linzey paper outlining the history of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) because it is from here that those dedicated petitioners derived their inspiration to dauntlessly collect all of those signatures that put this on the ballot. (Thomas Linzey: Corporation, Communities and the Environment, Eugene Oregon, March 2, 2013). In the early 90’s after graduating from college, like many other idealistic students, Linzey and others started CELDF to put to use what they believed at the time were our enlightened environmental laws, believing that the only problem was that there were not enough environmental lawyers to make them work. They tirelessly worked for communities to stop things like toxic landfills, toxic emissions and other environmental insults. They became experts on regulations and, at first it seemed that they were making headway. They were able to stop big corporations by finding faults within the permit process, missing signatures, etc., “undotted “i’s” or uncrossed “t’s”. The communities would then be overjoyed and celebrate their victory at having stopped the onslaught. But a few weeks or few months later the corporations would have corrected the mistakes and then would have their way with the communities. In the end CELDF realized that they were just teaching the corporations how to work the regulatory system better. The communities would be abashed and ask for more help but once all the requirements were met in the process, there was nothing more that CELDF could do. They had found the impasse; it is the structure of the law itself; the system is fixed and there seems nothing communities can do to change it. CELDF considered shutting down the office because, the way things are, no community has a chance in hell of staving off the corporate takeover to do whatever they please. All the petitions, all the demonstrations, all the letters to politicians, all the appeals to common sense, to human decency were, in the final analysis, useless. But then, out of the minds and hearts of ordinary people, as so often is the case in a true revolution, a solution began to come into focus. And that, folks, is why we need a Bill of Rights in our county. Small communities, the current count is about 150 across our nation, are now taking on those doctrines that give corporations and the state and federal government precedent over the rights of the communities They are reframing the issues and they are making progress. As Linzey says, “Small communities have decided to begin to write ordinances to directly challenge those legal doctrines which keep our communities subordinate to these corporations.” For more of the story I suggest that you Google CELDF and find this paper and educate yourself. The bottom line is, that although “sustainability” is a big word in our community, without changing our county’s form or government and incorporating a Bill of Rights to protect ourselves and also to protect Nature itself, we have no defense from corporations and we will, in the final analysis, be encroached to death, us and our environment. No matter how enlightened we are in creating sustainability in our community, the system is fixed and as it is now, we cannot win. So that brings me to the opposition of our local Democratic Party to the Charter and Bill of Rights. Every argument that has been made is fear-based. The Dems believe that they are in control of the county and it is only human to fear losing control. They even oppose People having the right of Initiative and Referendum, which means that they prefer the People to have less power to govern themselves. When it was first announced that the local Democratic Party was not going to support the charter movement, I sent an e-mail to George Yount expressing my disappointment and urging him to read the Thomas Linzey article. He listed many fear-based reasons why this is so, but I do not believe that they understand what this is really all about. To borrow a metaphor from Stephen Covey’s book (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) the Dem party’s stand is like arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. They are willing to accept that the system is fixed and fear doing anything to make it different. After attending the Democratic party’s meeting last week, the one where they hysterically voted to not support the Charter, I’ve come to think of them as the “New Tories.” For those of you who are not history buffs, here is a definition: “An American upholding the cause of the British Crown against the supporters of colonial independence during the American Revolution.” (Webster’s Dictionary) I had planned on going over the objections one by one but I will save that for tomorrow. This charter movement really isn’t partisan, although both parties seem to want to make it so. It is really about us, the People, informing ourselves and being willing to take a risk, trusting that we can come together as the People of Jefferson County, to take back control of our community together by giving ourselves the right of Initiative and Referendum and by creating a Bill of Rights to stop the rape of Mother Earth, protect our resources and keep out the corporate world so they cannot do any more harm in the name of profit. So first we need an informed public. I recommend the following sites: Google anything about CELDF, there is a treasure trove there and it will give you hope. Also, try readthedirt.org.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 03:30:19 +0000
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