SERF (sûrf) A member of the lowest feudal class, attached to the land owned by a lord and required to perform labor in return for certain legal or customary rights. A person in bondage or servitude.
My family came to the area on a land grant in 1782 for services in the Continental Army. Since my roots are about 225 years old I believe I'm about as local as it gets. Appalachia has a unique and rich culture. Part of that culture is a right of self determination over ones property and life. It is the most dear principle of liberty, and one my ancestor helped secure by fighting against King George III some 200 years ago. I believe now that liberty again needs defending. This time not by force of arms, but by the voice of the people.
I read something this past weekend in one of the local publications in which the author couldn't understand why "Zoning" was a dirty word in our area. Simple, Zoning flies in the face of freedom itself. It stops self determination and it damages the economy by restricting it. Zoning is a Socialist concept that destroys the a free market in land, and removes its value without compensation to the owner. Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman said it best, "Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself."
These believers in Zoning, tend to be affluent and from the suburbs of a major city or at least lived there for a time. They falsely believe they are gaining some security by giving up some freedom. Ben Franklin saw right through this argument when he said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." These same people talk about how great living in Prince George's, Loudon, or Fairfax Counties was. My question is; If it was so great then why did you leave? The answer is they wanted to gain back that liberty they gave up. Despite all their rules and regulations that take away some of the liberty, they have much higher taxes, higher crime rates, etc and are less secure than we are here. Bad thing is many don't even realize that is why they left. Old Ben had it right, he knew the danger of this type of thinking.
In the article I read, it revealed that in Loudon County, Mobile Homes are not considered homes. That you can't put a mobile home on anything less than 5 acres. Wow! I have friends that are very proud to own their own home and some of those are mobile homes. This is wrong in so many ways. The only purpose of a zoning ordinance like that is to give power to the affluent in the community over the common man. It makes it harder for struggling families, low income wage earners, some middle class, or persons on a fixed income to own their own home. That is the thought process of the Socialist. The socialist pretends that a mobile home is not a home. That way when they deny your ability to own a home you can afford through zoning, they see it as not really taking away your right to own a home in their mind. It is a way for them to justify taking away the liberty of others.
Zoning tries to regulate bulk of the population into nothing more than Serfs of the rich land owners. In essence a Zoning Board will become the Feudal Lords, and the Taxpayers become the Serfs. (You don't really think the guy living in a trailer park, and working at the chicken plant will ever be appointed to the zoning board, do you?) We are not Appalachian Serfs that need controlled. We are free men and women that enjoy self determination over lives and property. If you try take away our liberty, then "Serfs Up Dude!"
I remember very clearly many of the dinners I had when I was a small child and my mom was struggling financially. All too often we had a big pot of navy beans or mom's special version of Tuna Helper (extra can of peas added for filler.) There was no asking for something else; whatever she cooked was what we had. She didn't serve these because they were delicious taste sensations. We were poor and it was all we had. Mineral County is in about the same boat as far as economic development is concerned. From time to time something gets served up, you either eat up or you starve. Right now too many people in this county are actually going without because we do not accept all that we are offered. The county itself needs the sustenance of whatever development options are available. Comparing Mineral County to Loudon County in Virginia is rather far fetched. Loudon is a Ponderosa compared to Mineral's bowl of beans. They can pick and choose whatever their palate dictates. Although it is right to try and figure out what the county might need in terms of preparing for what growth may come, it is not right to regulate it away before it even arrives. Mineral County needs to build a tax base whether it be a handful of light industrial jobs, restaraunt, retail or whatever. It is only common sense to allow potential investors the widest variety of options possible so we can build up employment opportunities and a strong tax base. Our leaders that consider zoning as a viable option would be like someone pushing away my bowl of beans when I was a kid saying "kids don't like beans," but then I have nothing but that sick starving feeling in my stomach the rest of the night. Oh, by the way, I did NOT like beans but on the other hand I was hungry enough to choke them down usually. Mineral County needs more sustenance, and less pickiness from some of its leaders. It needs more options and fewer regulations. Just give us the darned beans, we're hungry.
ReplyDeleteI used to live in the city and zoning is why people leave. My father started a business at home and built it into a very good business, with zoning he could not do it.
ReplyDeleteComparing Mineral County to Loudon County in Virginia is like comparing a Ferrari to Volkswagen bug. There is no comparison.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is... there are more $10,000trailers here than 300,000 dollar homes... they are here because they know they can live here and do it without losing everything they have, why not let them have that peace? if you want to build a 300,000 dollar house.. dont do it next to a trailer park and then bitch about it.. I think Mineral county could do with a little less "democratic dictation" and a little more economic development... by the way.. is there a good reason for our so called "development authority"? What a joke!
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