By Nancy Thorner and Bonnie O’Neil
26 March 2014
Part I
You may be one of the unlucky Americans that have already experienced the heavy hand of government intruding on your personal property rights. However, today most Americans remain unaware of the planned and unprecedented power grab, inflicted on Americans by a relatively “quiet” agreement our government made with the United Nations, known as U.N. Agenda 21.
It is thought by many to be more of a scheme, with the claim it is being initiated in order to save the world by creating a sustainable environment. If allowed to continue, the plan will change America in many ways. Many of our treasured freedoms and rights will be systematically removed. Many see Agenda 21 as the ultimate goal to gain world-wide control and create a one-world-governing body.
What would it involve and how would it impact American citizens? Forget your dream of a two story home on your own piece of land. Instead the plan is to force us to settle for a nightmare. Conjure up an image of China … specifically a city like Beijing with few private homes and massive apartment buildings. A place where people will likely live in zones connected by congested freeways, and all controlled by an untouchable government.
It was George Washington who said, “Private property and freedom are inseparable,” with John Adams affirming that “Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.” Those wise words are no longer embraced by members of the Agenda 21 group, some of whom are America’s top leaders.
How close is this plan to creating an environment much like that of a Communist state?
Well, Communism is defined as a system of social organization in which economics and property are controlled by the state, offering its citizens few rights or freedoms. One would think that since such a system has never prospered, it would not be attempted again, and certainly not in a country like the United States, one of the most successful countries in the world. America had the good fortune of forefathers who gave us an amazing Constitution, Bill of Rights, and a form of government that is the envy of the World. We have prospered and welcomed others to embrace and enjoy it with us. We have been blessed with the ability to own property; our very own piece of chosen land, which can be passed on to our heirs. Why would we risk losing our freedoms? Who would willingly hand over their property and lose our many freedoms, due to a United Nations Agenda?
The powers behind Agenda 21 knew most people would resent being manipulated by the government into drastic changes in their life style. They did not expect us to easily give up our homes and move to newly designed, massive apartment complexes in a different neighborhood, and raise families in cramped housing units. They know we want the freedom to choose the car we enjoy driving, where and when we want to travel, and the size of family we choose to have.
They needed to devise a clever way to convince Americans to surrender their rights and basic freedoms granted them by our wise forefathers. Thus, we began to hear reports of man-made global warming, which included dire warnings of calamities likely to occur as a result. They claimed man was causing icebergs to melt, potentially causing oceans to overflow onto our shores. They warned we must make drastic changes in our lives to survive the tragedy. They claimed it to be “proven science”. It was not; in fact quite the contrary. Evidence began emerging indicating the World had actually been in a cooling phase for the past couple of decades.
Soon, a growing number of scientists and climatologists began refuting claims of global warming. When massive ships became stuck in thick ocean ice packs and whales became trapped under large ice pockets off the Canadian coast, Agenda 21 masterminds and global warming enthusiasts quickly changed their terminology to “Climate Change”, a much safer title so that any change in our climate can be blamed on you and me, and thus justify laws that dictate those radical changes.
[ The Heartland Institute, located in Chicago, IL, Joe Bast, President, was called “the world’s most prominent think tank promoting skepticism about man-made climate change” by The Economist, May 26, 2012. Due to be released by The Heartland Institute in April are Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts and Climate Change Reconsidered II: Human Welfare, Energy and Policies. The reports are produced by the Nongovernmental International Panel of Climate Change (NIPCC), which counters the reports of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warning of dangerous and catastrophic human effects on climate based largely on CO2 emissions. ]
Without the threat of oceans warming and flooding our land, what might entice people to make the uncomfortable changes dictated by Agenda 21? Possibly one or a combination of the following might work: Create a downward economy and/or economic crisis, cause jobs to be scarce, create further economic woes through escalating gasoline costs, and higher taxes. Then develop amazingly attractive advertisements of high rise apartments, with low rental fees that are located close to one’s place of employment. That plan worked in China, and is currently a theme in colleges throughout America.
As documented in our introductory article on the U.N. Agenda 21 published Sunday, March 23, “U.N. Agenda 21 designed to spawn a one-world-government,” a non-governmental organization called the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) is tasked with carrying out the goals of Agenda 21 worldwide. It is currently being implemented locally through ICLEI USA which was launched in 1995 and now has a solid network of cities, towns and counties. Their agenda has not received much attention in the media, so don’t feel badly if the name is new to you. The organization has gradually and quietly been making changes within our cities, often clothed in clever phrases, such as “smart growth”, “clean energy”, “sustainability”, “redevelopment”, “high density urban mixed use development” and “intelligent cities”.
Has ICLEI invaded your county or city yet? Not sure? Check for the “buzz” words on the agendas of your city council meetings. Better yet, begin attending city and county board meetings
An example of how ICLEI operates in our cities and counties was recently evident in a semi-rural area of Santa Rosa, California; a beautiful and quiet area in which family homes and properties are located with a creek running through their property. The residents had never heard of Agenda 21, ICLEI, sustainable development, or any of the other language associated with Agenda 21, until they received a post card in the mail from a concerned citizen, suggesting they attend a City Council meeting where the officials were expected to vote for a law that would take a specific amount of land on each side of the river (100 feet) and claim what was private property to be designated as government property. Shocked, the residents all marched to the meeting, determined to stop the plan to rob them of their property. Surprised by the overwhelming number of furious residents, the Council put their vote on hold. It has not been put on the City’s agenda since.
The action of one knowledgeable citizen saved those Santa Rosa residents’ property rights. If we are to save our cities and our rights, we too must become educated on all the tentacles of United Nations Agenda 21. Watch for our next edition, as we will provide you with more facts about another facet of this insidious plan.
Part II
Our last article, “Are You Under Attack by UN Agenda 21,” exposed the “United Nation Agenda 21″ scheme to grab American citizens’ property rights and freedoms. While that information is not exactly going viral throughout America, more and more people are realizing something unusual and troubling is happening in America.
That is good news, because the more citizens become observant and knowledgeable, the better chance we have of stopping what many now believe is an invasive attack upon us. While property rights are a major part of Agenda 21, it encompasses far more areas of our lives, with new laws and adverse changes from our government. We will explain the other tentacles of this odious United Nations agenda in future editions. This article will inform you of more ways it impacts our property and freedom, as well as our natural resources, parks and historic landmarks.
We must deny the assumption that only government can protect nature, air, soil, water, and open spaces. History informs us that all societies run by totalitarian governments experience severe environmental degradation where there is little or no private property and a misuse of resources. The end result is a chasm which develops between the haves and have-nots and a resulting bleak future for individual citizens.
An example of personal property being taken by the government is The Wildlands Project. It dictates how land is to be set aside for non-humans, and if your property happens to be located in one of their designated areas, you become less important than animals. In Kern County, California, there are 400 such areas planned. The pretense to confiscate the land is that it is national forest land, with the claim “it is good for the people.”
There is a definite push to have people become more dependent by relocating them from suburbs into cities, out of private homes into condos, and out of private cars onto their bikes or electric cars. Bike lanes and bike paths are all the rage right now, as cities and rural areas are being remade in accordance to the sustainable model. With high density urban developments, parking for cars could be eliminated, as there would be no need for vehicles that sprew forth CO2. As documented in the Fifth Assessment Report issued by the U.N. International Panel of Climate Change (ipcc) on September 27. 2013, manmade Global Warming was attributed in large part to CO2 emissions.
In 2013 San Francisco Bay Area residents battled city planners on the implementation of “Plan Bay Area and Senate Bill 345″– known as the “smart growth” program — which called for the moving of people from rural communities into the city’s urban sprawl so government would have more control over how they impacted the environment. Rosa KIoire, a former forensic appraiser and the founder of Democrats Against UN Agenda 21, believes the smart growth plan is more about making people live closer together so government can have more control over them than about any environmental impact.
The Monument Act was originally created to protect America’s historical landmarks and/or structures from being destroyed. That Act is now being used by the federal government to grab land for their own purposes. Those who designed the Act did not foresee something as odious as Agenda 21, and trusted that our federal government would never use the Act for any other purpose than to preserve our monuments. However, abuses are happening, as the citizens of New Mexico can testify. In December of 2012, President Obama used the Monument Act to grab the area known as the Taos Plateau, even though that area lacked properties that would qualify it for a national monument. That area of the state has enormous underground resources, such as oil, coal, and uranium, resources that could be providing economic benefits to both the state and its residents. Rather than create jobs that would benefit the people who live in New Mexico, that land now belongs to the government.
Then there is the Clean Water Act of 1972 where even mud puddles can become wetlands that must be protected. Should an area be deemed a wetland, the owner is no longer allowed to use or sell it. One of the more mindless abuses of the law happened in California. Using a provision in the Clean Water Act, which provided for a healthy habitat for fish, California officials purposely diverted the Sacrament River and allowed that essential water supply to flow into the ocean. Sound too incredible to believe? What would ever cause such a strange action?
A relatively unknown, small SMELT fish was being caught in pumps that supplied water to the valley. The fish was on the endangered list and citing the Endangered Species Act, a judge ordered the pumps that watered the valley turned off and the water diverted, lest the Delta melt be disturbed That water supply was needed to irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres of farm area in California, and without it, farmers were forced to watch once thriving fruit groves to wither and die, as well as other types of crops throughout a huge region in the California valley. Jobs were lost, lives were destroyed, all because the government chose to protect a fish over peoplewhose lives depended upon their farming their land for a living. Even when California fell victim to a severe drought, the government would not relent and let the river flow along its normal course. We now live in a land in which a fish is more important than people. Certainly this is not what our forefathers intended of the law, but an overreaching government has abused our freedoms.
The erosion of property rights has continued despite public backlash, as it did in the Supreme Court Kelo v. New London decision in 2005, which allowed a Connecticut town to seize private property not just for public use, but also for private development surrounding new offices for the Pfizer Inc. drug corporation. In 2009, New York state’s highest court ruled the state could use eminent domain to seize large numbers of homes and businesses in Brooklyn to make room for a new arena for New Jersey Nets basketball. Even more grievous, in 2005, The Supreme Court ruled that local governments may force property owners to sell out and make way for private economic development when officials decide it would benefit the public, even if the property is not blighted and the new project’s success is not guaranteed.
You are probably wondering whom is behind the U.N. Agenda 21 plan. Unfortunately, quite a few world-wide leaders, including many in our own country. Not surprising, one of the more prominent is George Soros, a billionaire and liberal socialist, who strongly supports Agenda 21. Soros’ money has been tracked to funding parts of ICLEI, as early as 1997 when his “Open Society” gave ICLEI over 2 million dollars to support a Local Agenda 21 Project. His billions fund over 90 leftist organizations such as ACORN, SEIU, MoveOn.org, Occupy Wall Street, the ACLU and most any that promote his far-left agenda. In a subsequent article we will discuss how Soros’ Open Society Institute has partnered with the U. S. Department of Education to promote a global education initiative to bring about the nationalization of the American education system known as Common Core, endorsed by Arne Duncan, Obama’s left leaning Secretary of Education.
We can only hope that we can defeat Agenda 21 before experiencing any more government abuses. One way to stop Agenda 21 from infiltrating American is to vote for Conservative candidates who oppose U.N. Agenda 21. Oh, and not just vote, but support them in every way possible. Educate yourself about the candidates and then talk to your friends, relatives, and neighbors …. maybe even your grocery store clerk. Whatever it takes: Vote against the slick liberals who make claims they have no intention of keeping. Look at their records, not their rhetoric. There is an ongoing war for our future, and we need good men to fight on the side of liberty and freedom.
When the defense of liberty becomes a crime, tyranny is already in force. At that point, failure to defend liberty makes slavery a certainty.
[Originally published at Illinois Review]
