(Stillness in the Storm Editor) The State owns everything. It owns the land, the roads, the schools, the air, the water, and our bodies. They even own your right to use your house, apartment or home. But, of course, none of this is admitted by the State. Yet for those who can comprehend lawful realities, the truth is unmistakable.
The fact is, legal definitions and usages of property are more akin to renting than Fee Simple land ownership. We think when we buy something—especially a house or land—that we have the right to do with it whatever we want. But in truth, we’re only allowed to do things that are permitted by the State. And since the State has the final say, and takes our property when we don’t agree with it—without question—that means we don’t really own property the way we’ve been taught to think. We’re just renters, serfs, vassals on the land owned in perpetuity by the State. If you don’t believe this, try going against local policy, like not paying your property taxes, and see what happens.
Granted, having some basic agreements about how to treat the land responsibly is something the vast majority of people understand. After all, our lives are short, and when we leave this world, someone else has to live where we did. As such, ensuring people don’t salt the earth and poison the land is a good idea.
But what’s happening in Indiana after the floods recently isn’t benevolent governance, its probably part of a sell-off scheme, wherein property values depreciate due to lack of reconstruction and are then sold off later after owners are forced to abandon their homes. New Orleans employed the same tactic after the infamous Katrina hurricane incident. And the same practices have been used throughout the world to force people out of their homes.
It’s an old trick we keep falling for.
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We would like to think that these things would never happen in our neighborhoods, but the reality is, the same legal framework exists almost everywhere. And what it means is that you don’t really own your home, you don’t really own property, you only have permission to use it from the State.
The State can come in and declare Imminent Domain or prevent you from using your property by denying you a permit. It happens quite often, especially with those free thinking individuals who want to use their property for sustainability and abundance projects like Permaculture.
So while we read about these problems in Indiana, we shouldn’t let ourselves believe it can’t happen to us. The fact is we’re all equally defrauded by the State, and only by banding together can we prevent any more encroachments on our most fundamental of freedoms.
Source – The Free Thought Project
by Claire Bernish, August 19th 2016
Residents in South Bend, Indiana, dealing with several feet of flooding following a record-decimating rainfall now also have to deal with costly and time-consuming government red tape in order to rebuild homes and businesses — making them hapless victims of both nature and the State.
Before Hoosiers can pick up the pieces by reconstructing their property, the City of South Bend is forcing them to also pick up a building permit.
According to a media release from the South Bend/St. Joseph County Building Department:
“Repairs and/or construction activities to structures that are located in the floodplain and were damaged due to the disaster will require a local building permit from the South Bend/St. Joseph County Building Department as required by local ordinance.”
Worse, “In addition, depending on a property’s location, a permit may be required from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources prior to the start of any reconstruction activity. Failure to obtain the necessary permits could result in fines.”
Leave it to Big Government to exponentially worsen an already difficult and costly situation.
On Monday, the South Bend area received “its highest rainfall total for a single calendar day since records began,” the Weather Channel reported, officially 7.69 inches of rain, which broke the previous record set in September 2008 by a full inch.
“In one day,” meteorologist Jim Erdman noted, “the city received more than twice its average rainfall for the entire month of August, which is 3.76 inches.”
When including rainfall that continued into Tuesday morning, that total climbed to 8.49 inches — and needless to say, the water inundated local storm drains and paralyzed any ability to alleviate resultant floods.
— Margaret Fosmoe (@MFosmoe) August 17, 2016
“Many of the toughest days are actually in the days to come because it’s going to take a very long time for some of this water to go away,” Mayor Pete Buttigieg said. “In the days coming ahead frustration is going to set in.
“People need to understand this is a thousand-year rain event. With the amount of water in some roadways and in some basements, it’s not an amount of water that can be removed by a pump or a truck or draining operation. You just have to wait for it to recede.”
Traumatized residents trying to contend with expensive and horrific damage — one reported eight feet of water in his basement — now also have to cope with the burden of overbearing state bureaucracy, not to mention penalties for failing to comply.
Although such an unprecedented rainfall would be expected to overflow city storm drains and sewers by its nature, one business blames the State for damage incurred.
Chris David, manager of Around the Corner Auto Service, said construction work on a nearby highway bypass left the closest storm drain cordoned off by a fence in the shop’s backyard — which, when record-breaking rains began to fall, acted as a dam for debris, leaving water nowhere to go but inside.
David and three employees have been working nonstop to clean the damage, but he faces an arduous road ahead to reopen the shop’s doors to customers. As he told local CBS affiliate WSBT,
“Insurance is not going to cover it because they think it was the fault of the state, not the fault of ours.”
Total estimated damage to the auto service store has already climbed to a whopping $120,000.
Should any reconstruction be necessary, of course, David would also be forced to obtain what amounts to the State’s permission slip — to repair damage the State haphazardly caused in the first place.
But the Indiana Department of Transportation disagrees with David and his insurance company, placing blame for his woes solely on the rainfall, itself.
“We had record breaking rainfall and many areas flooded,” explained Doug Moats, public information officer for INDOT, “and I don’t think that fence was directly responsible for that.”
Despite David’s description of the dam effect the fence caused during the torrential rainfall, Moats claims the storm drain would have overflowed regardless.
“Utilizing that fence as an excuse as to why that there was additionally flooding there is maybe convenient,” he said. “But to be completely honest, it was the fact that we got 8 to 10 inches in a short amount of time.”
Our Photographer Eric got swept away in the floods last night. Hear his story tonight. pic.twitter.com/i3qeHFI2ln— Shaun Gallagher (@ShaunGalWNDU) August 16, 2016
Both fortunately and surprisingly, no injuries or deaths were reported as having resulted from the rains and subsequent flooding.
Damage to properties is nevertheless understandably extensive — two homes collapsed after being inundated — forcing those who can and cannot afford to rebuild into a sudden scramble to file insurance claims and, of course, building permits in order to avoid the further expense of state-imposed fines.
It would be difficult to justify additional red tape during the aftermath of tragedy — nevertheless, the government didn’t even pretend to be apologetic for its additional imposition on the beleaguered residents of South Bend.
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Stillness in the Storm Editor’s note: Did you find a spelling error or grammar mistake? Do you think this article needs a correction or update? Or do you just have some feedback? Send us an email at [email protected]. Thank you for reading.
August 20th, 2016: Minor grammar corrections were made to the introductory portion of this article, as well as a hyperlink to Fee Simple for added conceptual receptivity.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/state-permit-flooding-victims/
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