Posted on 10/04/2002 4:43:41 PM PDT by AAABEST
Sawgrass Rebellion rekindled
Despite roadblocks, organizers expect event to 'succeed beyond our dreams'
By Henry Lamb
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
Rural people know you can't put out a grassfire by stomping on it, and, according to organizers of the Sawgrass Rebellion, property-rights abusers are about to learn that you can't quell a rebellion by stomping on it.
As WorldNetDaily reported Thursday, the long-planned national demonstrations in support of south Florida residents losing their homes because of controversial federal and state environmental projects were canceled earlier this week due to organizers' inability to obtain the needed government permits and locations.
But reports of the Sawgrass Rebellion's death, paraphrasing Mark Twain, may "have been greatly exaggerated."
Khen Gibson, a reporter traveling with a convoy heading for Florida from Klamath Falls, Ore. – one of several convoys from around the nation -- reports that a small group from the caravan was having breakfast in Elko, Nev., when they heard that the three-day Florida event to which they were traveling had been cancelled. It quieted the jubilance from the previous night's rally in Elko, which had raised more than $7,000 for the Sawgrass Relief Fund.
"As the conversation died down around the table," Gibson reported, "eyes turned expectantly in [convoy leader Bill] Ransom's direction. 'We promised we would go to Florida to help the farmers there,' Ransom told the group in an even voice. ‘We don't break promises. We are going to Florida.'"
This same spirit reportedly animated property-rights activists across the country, as reflected in their e-mail and telephone networks:
The caravans are not going to Washington, however. They're going to Florida.
The Property Rights Action Committee, located in Naples, is determined to continue its struggle against what it calls regulatory destruction of property rights. Members invited caravan travelers to "visit" them on their private property in an area that is targeted to become a "protected" area.
About 20 PRAC members gathered around a speakerphone Thursday night in a teleconference with Ransom and the Klamath caravan participants. "It was wonderful," says Cindy Kemp, a founding director of the group. "It's the first time we've met these people who are coming from across the country to help us. This really is the spirit of America -- neighbors helping neighbors."
"Of course there is no charge," says another PRAC spokesman. "You don't charge a fee to visitors who come to help you." The previously planned three-day event -- now cancelled -- required a $75 registration fee, which is being returned in full to all who pre-registered.
Veterans of the property rights movement say this "spirit" is the defining difference between environmental activists and property-rights activists. They observe that environmental organizations tend to be well-funded, often with grants from the federal government, and hire public-relations firms to produce slick fund-raising brochures, pay staff to attend government meetings and recruit well-intentioned civic leaders to be their spokesmen.
Grassroots property-rights organizations, on the other hand, are most often funded out of the paychecks of their members. Many participants know little about sophisticated government procedures, have no patience with propaganda, but typically have a burning determination to protect what they believe to be their God-given, constitutionally guaranteed rights.
The Sawgrass Rebellion was ignited when the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and the Collier County Comprehensive Plan Amendments targeted thousands of acres of private property for flooding, and the designation of thousands of additional acres of private property as "Natural Resource Protection Areas."
Landowners in every state experience similar challenges to their private-property rights, so when the Sawgrass Rebellion was launched people from across the country who identified with the Florida victims began planning to join the property-rights rallies near the Everglades.
Leaders of the Property Rights Action Committee say that when the big rally had to be cancelled, it was like throwing gasoline on a brush fire.
"People from everywhere have been calling, asking what they can do to help. With God's good grace, the Sawgrass Rebellion will succeed beyond our dreams," said Karol Montalto, a PRAC member who has used her own paychecks to finance T-shirts and caps to make embroidered "Sawgrass Rebellion" souvenirs.
"From the beginning, the purpose of the rallies was to call public attention to property rights abuses that occur when 'smart growth' plans are imposed, and when government assigns a higher value to birds and bugs than to humans," said a rally organizer. "We've certainly done that."
"As hard as this has been," he continued, "the real task is to get the attention of the policy makers and convince them that the government authority they are exercising does not reflect the consent of the governed."
The new rally for the out-of-state "visitors" is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 18, in Golden Gate Estates, near Naples Florida. PRAC leaders say a warm invitation is also extended to Florida residents who may want to "visit" the people whose land has been condemned to preservation.
Editor's note: The October 2002 edition of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine – titled "GREEN WITH ENVY: Exposing radical environmentalists' assault on Western civilization" – is a mind-boggling expose of the radical environmentalist movement. It documents how environmentalist-inspired laws outlawing asbestos caused the early collapse of the World Trade Center, killing thousands; how this year's ferocious western wildfires were largely the result of environmentalist policies; how environmentalist policy elitists want to lock up as much as one-half of the United States as "Wilderness," basically off-limits to humans; why the save-the-rainforest movement is a fraud; and much, much more.
Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization, chairman of Sovereignty International and a WorldNetDaily.com columnist.
SILENCE IS CONSENT!! TELL SOMEONE!!!
I think I like it even better than the Gadsen you made. Very nice, you must bring some!
I know at least on will be offered at auction.
This is still my favorite.
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