Ventura County Libertarian Party

Drop in on any political conversation between philosophical rivals and you’ll hear a debate over the value and role of the United States Constitution in modern-day governance. Conservative and libertarian types consider it “the law of the land,” which America’s Founding Fathers crafted with the objective of limiting the federal government to a few tasks necessary to protect people’s rights and the republic. Liberal and progressive types call it “a living document,” wherein the Founding Fathers couldn’t have imagined every potential issue to address and therefore intended it to be liberally interpreted in response to societal change.

One thing is certain—our founding document has taken a beating through the years as government, true to its nature, has always sought to stretch and expand its powers beyond Constitutional boundaries.

This time, however, the fight of the century is advancing from yet another direction: It’s coming from an outsider, a bully that cares nothing about our laws or our national self-governance. It has been positioning itself since 1945 as the benevolent dictator of the global community, proudly calling itself the preserver of worldwide peace and defender of human rights and freedoms. The interloper is, no surprise, the United Nations. The present power struggle is over control of the environment, our economy and our social institutions.

Near the close of the 20^th century, in 1992, the UN held the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED—aka the Earth Summit). Out of this meeting came a grandiose plan for the 21^st century, aptly named AGENDA 21, and thus the Sustainability movement was born:

“A major achievement of UNCED was Agenda 21, a thorough and broad-ranging programme of actions demanding new ways of  investing in our future to reach global sustainable development in the 21st century. Its recommendations ranged from new ways to educate, to new ways to care for natural resources, and new ways to participate in designing a sustainable economy.”

This does sound inspiring until one realizes that to accomplish these ambitious goals, there would have to be a central plan that would effect change on a worldwide scale, which would mean instituting a form of global governance. So what then happens to national sovereignty, the authority of a nation and its people over their own social, environmental and economic values, resources and endeavors? For the United Nations to achieve its objectives, national jurisdiction must give way to global control.

Smartly, the UN realized this would require a network of willing and energetic participants. Enter the UN’s sister organization: ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, “an international association of local governments as well as national and regional local government organizations who have made a commitment to sustainable development.” But ICLEI’s strategy would go beyond governments to include broad participation by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), businesses, private associations and individuals to achieve Agenda 21’s local, national and global sustainability objectives, as colossal as they are.

A key cornerstone of Sustainable Development implementation is to remove barriers to the global regulation of resources. Since the greatest barriers exist in the private market, where property rights are exercised, this is the area under harshest attack. Published reports on Sustainability point to the need to control and limit the private market, which is presumed to forsake the “public good” and to act irresponsibly with its profits and investments at every turn. Because governments are also seen as potential impediments to Sustainability, ICLEI trains its members in executing “effective” local development initiatives.

In the United States, the enactment of Agenda 21 via ICLEI is proceeding at a rapid pace as city and county agencies join ICLEI’s membership roster. Yet the public is unlikely to hear government officials admit their knowledge of, or association with, Agenda 21 or ICLEI. Is this due to ignorance or dishonesty? In any case, their actions and nomenclature make the relationship apparent.

Throughout cities, suburbs and rural towns, community meetings are being held by representatives of government agencies, NGOs, non-profit groups and other private organizations who stand to gain government contracts, subsidies and grants through their cooperation. Using such feel-good terms as Sustainable Development, Green Initiatives and Smart Growth, the facilitators of these “visioning” meetings advance predetermined solutions for improving the environment, the economy and “social justice” through redevelopment projects. Computer-generated models of quaint urban centers are shown, depicting images of utopia-living where everything from home to work to school to entertainment to shopping is just a bicycle-ride away. They add for extra appeal that will all be for the “common good.”

What they don’t tell the public is that the methods used to achieve these goals involve the rezoning of private property, the designation of “blighted” areas for the purpose of declaring eminent domain, new restrictions on land use, controlling water and energy consumption by raising utilities costs, rebuilding urban areas high with stacked and mixed-use housing and business complexes, and restricting vehicles and parking.

None of these incursions into the lives and liberties of Americans is constitutional. Globalist intervention by the United Nations is unacceptable. As more Americans learn how their cities and neighborhoods are being targeted, they will surely have something to say about it.

In Ventura County, California, informed residents are spreading the word. All are urged to join them on Thursday, September 8, 2011, at 6:30 PM in Moorpark, CA for BEHIND THE GREEN MASK, a presentation by Rosa Koire, Director of the Post Sustainability Institute and expert on Smart Growth and Green Initiatives. Reservations are recommended. Attendance is free. Visit www.PeopleProtectingFreedom.com or RSVP directly via email.