One of the best things about editing and writing for a website like canadafreepress.com is the information that comes to you directly from dozens of columnists in all corners of the globe.
The column that came in today from Nathan Tabor in North Carolina tells a true and tragic tale. Unfortunately, Tabor's tale is one that is too fast becoming the chronicle of the little guy in contemporary North america.
It is a story, as Tabor points out, that could happen even to you.
In a world turned topsy-turvy by the dictates of the politically correct, well-funded activists make publicized claims that endangered species are roaming among your cattle. Salt of the earth farmers and ranchers have no trouble standing up to activists, but governments do. When governments buckle to activists, farms held by the same families for generations are lost and their original owners are forced to move on like the displaced characters of Steinbeck novels.
as Tabor's colleague Henry Lamb once wrote, grandfather rancher Wally Klump spent his 70th birthday in jail on april 21, 2003 all because his cattle in arizona had wandered over a line drawn by activists, to graze.
Nothing, not even your own land belongs to you anymore, particularly when activists know it only takes pressure to get politicians to capitulate to their demands.
Consider the bleak picture now being faced by 83-year-old Neubert Purser, a decorated WW11 veteran, whose land is gone with the wind.
Like most decent folk Purser learned early in life that there is no place like home.
after serving his country in World War II, Purser returned a hero to his 72-acre farm on Matthews-Mint Hill Road in Matthews, North Carolina.
The farm both before and after the war is Neubert Purser's life.
While to the venerable veteran, the Mint Hill Road farm was what he had worked for all of his life and the future of his heirs, to authorities in the Town of Matthews, the farm was secretly coveted as a town park.
"They wanted it and they took it as easy as that", is how CFP columnist Nathan Tabor so aptly put it.
In the bittersweet irony that always comes with municipal do-gooders, the Purser family will someday hear how the town mayor gets to lay a Remembrance Day wreath at the cenotaph in the park that was once their beloved family farm.
In the telling of the stories of farmers losing their land, it somehow never gets round to the bleak end. By that time, everybody has moved on and few get to see the heartache and frustration of farm folk being forced to turn to town trade. Nobody cares much about the leftover longing, the sadness and the bitter frustration of knowing you have been turned off your own land by your own government.
Working the fields, tilling the land, too busy making it to the bank with our rent or mortgage money, little people are too preoccupied to worry about Big Brother Government coming by to take away everything they have worked for.
and too trusting of the system, too.
What farmer, rancher or landowner has time to go down to the municipality and read over the fine print on something called Eminent Domain?
"all states have variations of Eminent Domain laws on the books, though some use it only in emergency or specific situations…apparently, some states feel they can take your land for anything that might be used by the public," writes Tabor in his latest column.
a fighter of the little guy at heart, Tabor gives a practical How-to Guide for americans to fight Eminent Domain.
In my books, this more than anything is good reason to hope for Tabor's success in November's race for a seat on the North Carolina State Senate. He came impressively close when he ran unsuccessfully for congress in 2004.
Meanwhile, breaking the spirits of the noble Neubert Pursers, who served their country with honour, is the tragedy of the little people in this Millennium.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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