Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >What is "public use" is a matter of local opinion???
> 
> I would use determination rather than opinion, and, yes, I think that 
> public use is best judged by local citizens. Who understands local 
> conditions better? Who can better balance the value of current conditions 
> with proposals for change? Surely we can agree that bureaucrats and 
> politicos hundreds or thousands of miles away are less knowledgeable and 
> less sensitive to local conditions.
> 

Then comment on the point.  Being secure in one's personal property is a 
constitutional right -- just exactly like the right to freedom of speech, 
trial by 
jury, etc.  If local governments can diminish your right to be secure in your 
poperty by redefining "public use" to fit their 'druthers, then, by that 
reasoning, isn't is just as good a thing for them to be able to diminsh you 
right 
to free speech by locally defining "speech", and diminsh your right to a 
trial 
by locally defining "peer", etc.     Why would we not trust locals to be more 
knowledgeable and more sensitive to such things than politicians hundreds of 
miles away?   

James