The error in the concept of eminent domain begins with its name. Neither the word "eminent", meaning prominent or preemptive, nor "domain", meaning territory over which absolute dominion is exercised, properly applies to the government and your private property. The Founding Fathers were dead wrong when they granted the government the power of eminent domain in the Constitution.
Your inalienable right to life inextricably includes your right to acquire, use and dispose of property as you and you alone desire. My alleged needs...the public's alleged needs...have NO proper claim on your property. Your rights cannot morally be made the subject of a forced sale AT ANY PRICE. The government, as is true for everyone, must deal with through your unique human power: your power to choose. To deny you a choice to sell your property or not, is to remove you from the human race and dump you into the animal kingdom. Where there are no rights.
I am tired of hearing the constant and inappropriate sanctification of the Founding Fathers. Their idea of centering our country around the sovereignty of the individual, rather than around a group or the government, was enlightened. And daring. For that wisdom alone they are deserving of honor and praise.
But they were not omniscient nor error proof. They countenanced slavery, they relegated women to second class citizenship, they attributed our rights to an unknown, unknowable god rather than to our visible and knowable nature. And they erred by granting the government the power to alienate our inalienable rights via misnamed eminent domain.
No comments:
Post a Comment