Blue Collar Muse

I’m going to break with what appears to be a rather large segment of the population and ask, “What’s the big deal over Tyson Chicken and the Union coming to an agreement over a holiday for their work force?”

Tyson and the Union representing workers at their Shelbyville, TN plant, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, reached a 5 year contract settement that included exchanging one of the plant’s traditionally observed holidays, Labor Day, for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr celebrated each year at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. This effects only the Shelbyville plant. It was done because the plant’s 1,200 member workforce contains around 700 Somali Muslims. They wanted the change and the union represented their desires to Tyson and an agreement was struck. In 5 years, they can vote again. I again ask, what’s the big deal?

I believe in allowing people the freedom to do as they please with their businesses. Tyson is not the government and is not constrained, Constitutionally or otherwise, from making whatever accomodations it sees fit to address the concerns of an increasingly diverse workforce. Every business in America was forced by the government to spend money to comply with the ADA a few years back. The government is implementing “No Smoking” practices against the will of many businesses around the country. These are great examples of behavior we should be outraged with. But being bent out of shape because a business went out of its way to accomodate the needs of a large section of its workforce? Is this really an issue we want to push as outrageous? Instead, shouldn’t we be championing corporate America’s willingness to be responsive to the needs of its workers? Shouldn’t we be using this as an example of management and Unions working together to address the concerns of Labor?

Much of the negative response to the situation centers around the idea that this is America and people who come here should celebrate American holidays. But there is nothing un-American about Eid al-Fitr. In fact, since Eid al-Fitr is a Muslim holiday, it is not patriotic or political in nature at all. It is a religious holiday. And what is more American than ensuring that the Freedom of Religion is permitted here? The holiday being replaced is Labor Day, a day set apart to honor workers in general and union workers in particular! If the majority of the workers in the plant decide they don’t want a holiday honoring their efforts, preferring instead a holiday honoring their faith; and, if the union will back them up on this, how is this un-American? It’s about as American as it gets!

I support Tyson’s right to choose their corporate course, but they also need to be prepared to deal with the consequences. If people decide to boycott their products because of the decision, then Tyson and the plant’s workers will suffer. Tyson and the workers may change their mind later and find it more expedient to go with Labor Day. That’s the market in action and that’s a process I support. I also support people’s right to choose to be offended by Tyson’s decision and to take whatever legal steps they want to express their displeasure. As with so many things, I may disagree with what you say but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it! I’d just much prefer you to have a good reason to believe the things you’re giving voice to.

And that’s the rub. For the life of me I cannot find a single good reason to oppose the agreement that Tyson, the union and the workers hammered out. I can, in fact, think of a single reason, but as I mentioned, it’s not a good one. The only reason for the objection that I can find is varying degrees of anti-Muslim sentiment. Don’t get me wrong. I’m as opposed as anyone to Muslims who even think it’s OK to kill infidels in the name of their faith, let alone those who actually do so. That’s an objection to a crime. But I’m not prepared to bash a faith or a factory because they make choices that are good for workers and good for wallets. That seems to me to be little more than a negative response to someone different from us expressing that difference. That has all the earmarks of prejudice.

If anyone has evidence the Somalis in Shelbyville are cooking up C-4 or prepping trucks with ANFO bombs to deliver along with their wings, now is the time to speak up. But if all you can find fault with is a group of refugees coming to America, working hard and practicing their faith, you might want to reconsider.  Many others have come here for those reasons over the years.  Thanksgiving, Christmas and Memorial Day are just a few of the holidays we observe on behalf of other Americans doing and defending the very same thing.

Blue Collar Muse

SEE ALSO:

Tyson Drops Labor Day Holiday for Eid al-Fitr at The Shelbyville Times Gazette

Tyson Foods Drops Labor Day for Muslim Holiday at A Disgruntled Republican

What is Wrong with Tyson Chicken? by Brian McMurphy at Six Meat Buffet

Tyson’s Pandering to Somalis at Shelbyville, TN Plant at Bear Creek Ledger

The Surrender of Secularism at A Sense of Events

Irony: Labor Day Nixed by a Union at Hear It From Us

Popularity: 24% [?]

Tags: Eid al-Fitr, Holidays, Labor Day, Muslims, Prejudice, Tyson, Unions

Time was every restaurant and honky-tonk was filled with lead singers and pedal steel players waiting tables, slinging hash or tending bar to make a living until their ship came in. It was always “just temporary” and that elusive meeting to “ink the deal” was just around the corner. It even happened for some of them which only fueled the drive of others to get to Music City to take their shot at success.

But this is the 00s and there are all manner of new things around for singers and songwriters to do while they’re waiting for Dame Fortune to smile on them. Evidently, one of those things is blogging! I logged in last night and found the following as a comment on the very first ‘Will the Circle be Unbroken’ post. I loved it and though I left it there, I’m promoting the comment in full to here. Watch out for those Honky Tonk Bloggers at your favorite establishment around town!

Joy, If You’re reading this, feel free to put it to musicand use it…we can be co-writers. A friend of mine is working on some music for it, too..

‘Til The Lord Takes Me Home (Over My Dead Body)
Lyrics by Harry Pratt 2008
Imok39@yahoo.com

I’VE BEEN HERE FOREVER,
OR SO IT SEEMS THAT WAY,
MAKING WONDERFUL MUSIC,
EACH AND EVERY DAY,
I PAY ALL MY TAXES,
I’M NOT BREAKING ANY LAWS,
BUT NOW EMINENT DOMAIN
IS KNOCKING AT MY DOOR.

CHORUS:
THEY WANT TO BUILD A HIGH-RISE,
NOT A BRIDGE OR ROAD OR SCHOOL,
THEY WANT TO TAKE MY LIFE AWAY,
AND PLAY ME LIKE A FOOL;
THOSE GREEDY POLITICIANS,
ARE TRYING TO RE-ZONE,
BUT I AIN’T GOING NOWHERE,
TIL THE LORD, HE TAKES ME HOME.

WE’VE MADE A LOT OF MUSIC,
WE’VE SUNG SO MANY SONGS,
WE’VE TURNED WORDS INTO MAGIC,
AND WE AIN’T DONE NOTHING WRONG;
I’M NOT LOOKING FOR A FIGHT,
BUT WHAT I OWN IS MINE,
THEY CAN’T JUST COME AND TAKE IT,
JUSTICE JUST ISN’T THAT BLIND.

CHORUS:
THEY WANT TO BUILD A HIGH-RISE,
NOT A BRIDGE OR ROAD OR SCHOOL,
THEY WANT TO TAKE MY LIFE AWAY,
AND PLAY ME LIKE A FOOL;
THOSE GREEDY POLITICIANS,
ARE TRYING TO RE-ZONE,
BUT I AIN’T GOING NOWHERE
TIL THE LORD, HE TAKES ME HOME.

THEY CAN CALL ME STUBBORN
BUT I’M NOT GIVING IN,
TO TEAR DOWN WHAT WE’VE BUILT UP,
WOULD ONLY BE A SIN,
SO WE’LL KEEP MAKING MUSIC,
ALL MY FRIENDS AND ME,
WE’RE GONNA STICK TOGETHER,
WE’RE A MUSIC FAMILY.

CHORUS:
THEY WANT TO BUILD A HIGH-RISE,
NOT A BRIDGE OR ROAD OR SCHOOL,
THEY WANT TO TAKE MY LIFE AWAY,
AND PLAY ME LIKE A FOOL;
THOSE GREEDY POLITICIANS,
ARE TRYING TO RE-ZONE,
BUT I AIN’T GOING NOWHERE,
TIL THE LORD, HE TAKES ME HOME

Blue Collar Muse

Popularity: 20% [?]

Tags: Country International Records, Eminent Domain, Harry Pratt, Joy Ford, Music City, Music Row, Private Development, Songwriters

If you’ve ever loved a list of quotes that rocks your world with the philosophy it espouses but breaks your heart with the shortness of its length, despair no longer. Eric Odom has put together The Ultimate Libertarian Quote List at his blog. Or as I’m sure it will come to be known in the years ahead, the MOALQ.

My favorite (about half way down the list) is from P. J. O’Rourke,

We’re told cars are wasteful. Wasteful of what? Oil did a lot of good sitting in the ground for millions of years. We’re told cars should be replaced with mass transportation. But it’s hard to reach the drive through window at McDonald’s from a speeding train. And we’re told cars cause pollution. A hundred years ago city streets were ankle deep in horse excrement. What kind of pollution do you want? Would you rather die of cancer at eighty or typhoid fever at nine?

Take a half hour and enjoy the rest of the quotes.

Blue

Popularity: 17% [?]

Tags: , Eric Odom, Libertarian, Quotes

1st. Lt. Thomas M. Martin
27 years old from Ward, Arkansas
C Troop, 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division
October 14, 2007
An Eagle Scout, Thomas M. Martin took on cleaning up an old red train caboose as a service project. “He remodeled it to make it where people could go inside. If you saw it before and looked in it after he was through - it was daylight and dark”, said his former principal, Robert Martin, who is no relation. “Tom was involved in Key Club, German Club and band, making All-Region Band his sophomore year”, said Robert Martin. “He was a wonderful young man. Those that knew him knew he was funny and outgoing.”

Lt. Martin died in Al Busayifi, Iraq of wounds sustained from small-arms fire when insurgents attacked his unit during combat operations. He enlisted in the Army in 1998 after graduating high school and served in Korea before accepting an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 2005.

“He was very polite and respectful. I can’t think of him ever overreacting; he had a wonderful, good-natured personality”, said Pat Hagge, a family friend. “It’s a terrible tragedy; he was a great young man.”

Lt. Thomas Martin is survived by his parents, Edmund and Candis.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Tags: 1st. Lt. Thomas M. Martin, Air Force, Army, Marines, National Guard, Navy, US Military, Wednesday Hero

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Toni

1st LT. Frank B. Walkup, IV
23 years old from Woodbury, Tennessee
2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division
June 16, 2007

Toni already has a great post up on her site, so I’ll just link to it.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Tags: Air Force, Army, Marines, National Guard, Navy, US Military, Wednesday Hero

The powers permitted to Government ought to be few and well defined. So believed James Madison. Nowhere is this more true than in the area of “police power”. It should be noted the Constitution only extends police powers to the federal government in case of “counterfeiting, treason, piracy and offenses against the laws of nations.” Which makes for disturbing news from Homeland Security. Seems citizens need to be aware of yet more when flying.

Walter Williams illuminates. There is a new federal offense for air passengers. Called “nonphysical interference”, it carries up to $1,500 in fines for distracting a Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) screener’s attention from what he is doing. Williams writes the definition of

… nonphysical interference is solely up to the discretion of a TSA screener since it isn’t defined in the regulations. TSA agents can levy fines for a passenger disagreeing with the behavior or arrogance of a screener.

Williams reports hundreds of accounts of rudeness by TSA employees. In March, 2004 alone there were almost 3,000 formal complaints about TSA behavior, none of which resulted in disciplinary action. This from folks who now have authority to fine and arrest you for “interfering” with their duties! This doesn’t inspire confidence in the proper exercise of power.

Even worse, Williams also reports TSA has an entirely new position. Behavior Detection Officers (BDO) are now examining body language, facial expressions and other behavior to determine which passengers exhibit behavior warranting a more detailed screening. Bob, a trained BDO blogging at TSA’s ‘Evolutions in Security’ blog, defends the practice. He notes,

The program was designed by Paul Ekman (PhD), … He’s been studying behavioral analysis for the past 40 years and has taught the TSA, Customs and Border Protection, CIA, FBI and other federal agencies to watch for suspicious facial expressions of tension, fear or deception. … After passing along his skills to US Customs, their “hit rate” for finding drugs during passenger searches rose to 22.5 percent from 4.2 percent in 1998.

and further relates

Between July 1, 2007 and February 7, 2008, 514 people were arrested after being referred for additional screening or directly to law enforcement officers by behavior detection officers. The arrests include unlawfully carrying concealed firearms or other weapons, possession of fraudulent documents, transporting undeclared currency, possessing illegal drugs, immigration law violations, and outstanding warrants.

I’ll admit the technique increased US Customs’ hit rates over 500%. I’ll also note it still failed over 75% of the time. That hardly seems a scientific result to brag about.

Bob says BDOs might have flagged some of the 9/11 terrorists and “subjected them to secondary screening and questioning.” That might have saved lives. And it sounds low key. Citizens are singled out for searching and a few questions and bad guys get busted. However, the WSJ reports BDOs are “agents … trained to watch what [citizens] … do and ask pointed questions to raise their stress levels … to conduct rapid-fire questioning to find inconsistent stories.” That’s a different scenario and the potential for abuse is obvious.

If we apply Customs’ 75% failure rate to Bob’s 514 arrests, over 2,000 innocent passengers were intentionally upset, provoked and abused in producing that result. Of the list Bob touts, only “firearms and other weapons” impact air travel safety, the real job of TSA. How many of the 514 busts were weapon related? 5? 25? 100? Allowing 25 undetected weapons through would be a 1% failure rate. Doing nothing would have vastly improved TSA performance.

This is an apples-to-apples comparison. Because a 75% failure rate detecting bad guys by behavior equals TSA’s rate for detecting bombs at the airport! Publishing figures USA Today says “stunned security experts”, the TSA itself admitted failing to detect 75% of bomb components it tried to sneak past screeners at Los Angeles International Airport. At Chicago’s O’Hare, the failure rate was 60%. These figures are from 2007. But the paper also reports “Tests earlier in 2002 showed screeners missing 60% of fake bombs. In the late 1990s, tests showed that screeners missed about 40% of fake bombs …”

In what should have been a highly touted result, the best screening results came from private screening companies. In 2007, “San Francisco International Airport screeners, who work for a private company instead of the TSA, missed about 20% of the bombs, the report shows.” In 2002, “… screeners failed to find fake bombs, dynamite and guns 24% of the time. The TSA ran those tests shortly after it took over checkpoint screening from security companies.” TSA could immediately improve results by over 200% if they simply privatize the process!

Something needs to change. The figures paint a dangerous and unflattering portrait. TSA has had a 150% turnover in personnel in just over 6 years. This means inexperienced employees, often with only basic training, are on the job. There is little in the way of technology to make up for the inexperience. This produces pressure on frontline TSA personnel. Top that off by allowing an agency without police powers to increasingly look like police and act like police and we create what ‘Consumer Reports’ calls “A ‘facade of security’”. We also have the real threat of creating the very environment terrorists desire; innocents victimized by authority in response to terrorism.

I wish I had solutions. I don’t. But it seems our current solution is becoming worse than what it seeks to prevent. Increasing TSA authority is the wrong response. We need less confrontational, more successful and, dare I say, non-governmental options. The goal is not safety at any price or even merely safety. It is safety within the constitutional bounds of smaller government and undiminished personal liberty. We’re at another one of those crossroads. Choose wisely.

Blue Collar Muse

Popularity: 24% [?]

Tags: airport screeners, BDO, Behavior Detection Officer, nonphysical interference, Paul Ekman, TSA

Last week I wrote about the plight of Nashville’s Joy Ford, the country’s latest victim of Eminent Domain abuse by government. Nashville’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) has begun legal proceedings under Eminent Domain to condemn and seize Joy’s business. It has prospered at the head of Music Row for almost 30 years. Now it is “blighted” and must be bulldozed to make room for $100 million dollars worth of development by a private firm in Houston, TX. I said last week, this case is every bit as bad as Kelo vs New London in 2005.

Possibly anticipating the nation’s outrage over Kelo, Justice John Paul Stevens, writing in his Kelo opinon, said, “… nothing in our opinion precludes any state from placing further restrictions on its exercise of the takings power.” In the aftermath of Kelo, according to Property Fairness, 27 states, including Tennessee, took Justice Stevens’ encouragement and attempted to do exactly that in 2006.

The problem, of course, is not in the attempt but in the accomplishment. The Tennessee Bar Association published an excellent analysis of Tennessee’s new law. The short version is that, in Tennessee, little was accomplished beyond political posturing. It is Tennessee’s 2006 failure to further restrict its takings power which leads directly to MDHA’s 2008 actions against Joy Ford. Speaking of the effectiveness of Tennessee’s legislation, Drew Johnson, President of The Tennessee Center for Policy Research noted,

“Tennessee’s new eminent domain law is a joke—and the joke is on property owners across the state,” … Tennesseans aren’t any more secure from having their property taken than before the law was passed.”

In particular, Johnson says that the law’s failure to more clearly define blight and its outright encouragement of eminent domain use to acquire land for industrial parks makes it particularly threatening to property owners.

Three months earlier, State Rep. Susan Lynn (TN-57), offered this evaluation of the law,

… after being worked through committee, this bill essentially guarantees very little protection for Tennesseans when it comes to eminent domain. To quote Sandra Day O’Connor in her dissent of the Kelo decision, the “specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.”

The bill states that ‘public use’ shall not include either private use or direct public benefits deriving from private economic development or private commercial enterprise, including the benefit of increased tax revenue and increased employment opportunities - except in the case where eminent domain is used for; roads, public utilities, private utilities, housing authorities, community development agencies for urban renewal or redevelopment plans; or for industrial parks. Looking at that list, I really can’t think of any exception for private economic development by eminent domain that the bill leaves out.

These 2006 comments by Lynn and Johnson are prescient. Joy Ford’s property is being seized because it is deemed “blighted”. Drew Johnson noted the law’s poor definition of blight. According to Ms. Ford, her property is ruled “blighted” because, among other things, it is surrounded by a chain link, barbed-wire topped security fence and is the only building left on the development property. Yet someone, perhaps the developer, has erected a shabbier looking fence around the development site. It goes unreported that both a hotel and Ford’s building abut the same parking lot. I assume the hotel property is not part of the development and so escapes urban “blight” despite also standing alone. Either that or Ford’s building is not the only one left on the property. Further, the reason Ford’s building is the only one left is the Shoney’s and other buildings standing on the site were demolished in anticipation of the development.

I’m trying to determine if these truly are factors in the classification of the Ford’s property as “blighted”. If so, how unfair. MDHA and LionStone Group want to buy her property but Ford won’t sell. They move ahead with development plans and clear the land. This has, for them, the pleasant side effect of creating the situation needed to force Ford from her property. Had LionStone and MDHA been required to wait until the property was free and clear before proceeding, a major element of the case against Ms. Ford, that of her “blighted” property, would not exist. How does creating “blight” for personal gain become working for the good of the public?

However, it is Rep. Lynn’s comments which make me wonder if government has not stacked the deck against the citizens they are to represent. A quick read of the bill would lead one to believe Tennessee was seeking to protect Tennesseans from the exact abuse Connecticut forced on her citizens. As Rep. Lynn observes, the bill starts well, noting “‘public use’ shall not include either private use or direct public benefits deriving from private economic development or private commercial enterprise, including the benefit of increased tax revenue and increased employment opportunities …” Unfortunately, the Tennessee Legislature left a loophole in the law. While making an acceptable exemption for traditional uses of Eminent Domain such as “… roads, public utilities, private utilities …” the bill then opens the door to all manner of Eminent Domain abuse by also exempting cases “… where eminent domain is used for; … housing authorities, community development agencies for urban renewal or redevelopment plans; or for industrial parks.”

The very issue which enraged the public in the Kelo decision, taking private property for private economic development to increase the city’s tax revenue, is not forbidden to government. In fact, the mechanism for government to do precisely that is written into the law. Government is forbidden from directly taking your property to develop to improve tax revenues. But agencies created by government whose purpose is development can do so. How did such disregard for citizen’s rights become law and an example of preserving the rights of citizens?

I’d like an answer to that from the Legislature. I’m sure Ms. Ford would, too. But for her, time is running out. The Legislature ran out of town at the end of the session. Too bad MDHA is still here and they’ve given Ford until just the middle of September to vacate the premises. After that, the wrecking balls start swinging. That’s long before the politicians responsible for this mess swing back through town. Stay tuned for more on this here …

Blue Collar Muse

SEE ALSO:

LionStone Blight at Kay Brooks.

Government Takes Over in Nashville at Blue Collar Republican.

Eminent Domain Abuse in Nashville at The Roundtable.

Popularity: 39% [?]

Tags: Country International Records, Drew Johnson, Eminent Domain, Joe Cain, Joy Ford, Kelo v New London, Lionstone Group, MDHA, Music Row, Private Development, TN Rep Susan Lynn

Near the beginning of The Declaration of Independence, these words appear.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

It is here, a 30 second read into the birth of our nation, we find the most important right which government is to secure, the Pursuit of Happiness.

The Declaration establishes three foundational rights. The Constitution generally amplifies them, outlining ways government may not prevent us from exercising them. Our Right to Life is partially expressed in our Right to Keep and Bear Arms to defend that Life if threatened. Our Right to Liberty is partially expressed in our Right to Due Process to ensure any restraint on that Liberty is just.

One Right listed in the Declaration is different. It has no amplification in the Bill of Rights. The least discussed, it is the most important - the Pursuit of Happiness.

The Pursuit of Happiness is different in that it guarantees nothing. Other Rights we enjoy enumerate a concrete something. We have Freedom of Speech. Speech is a “something” that is mine. Just so with Life, Liberty, to Bear Arms, the Press - at the end of each we find something tangible. Not so with the Pursuit of Happiness.

Pursuing Happiness is the only Right which does not define an outcome. We are not guaranteed Happiness, just the Pursuit of it. We are not assured the road will not be difficult or poorly maintained, merely that it is there to be traveled. Because of this, the Pursuit of Happiness is our most precious Right. Because phrased another way, it guarantees our Right to Fail.

Happiness is different for every man. Our dreams are as individual as we are. It would have been folly to try to define Happiness; folly to determine the best path to Pursue it. Pursuits may be long or short; easy or difficult; straightforward or complicated. While I am grateful for the straightforward, short and easy ones, it is the value in the complicated, long and difficult ones which the Declaration anticipated. Because the Pursuits teaching us the most, both building and revealing character; producing the most opportunity for us, are the difficult ones or the ones we fail to complete at all.

Thomas Edison tried over 4,000 different prototypes of the light bulb before realizing his goal. He is reported to have said, “I have not failed 4,000 times. I have discovered 4,000 ways not to create an incandescent light bulb!” Undaunted by failing in his Pursuit, Edison learned from each. It was because of, not in spite of, his failures, that he succeeded. Even the simplest Pursuits face obstacles. A man’s response to them determines not just his success in Pursuit of that specific Happiness. It determines his success for all future Pursuits as well.

Do we persist in adversity? Do we work as hard in anonymity as we do in the limelight? Do we collaborate or insist on solo Pursuits? There are a myriad lessons to be learned. Most of them are only learned through failure. As it is said, “Most good judgement comes from experience! Most experience comes from bad judgement!”

It is here where a man’s success or failure in his various Pursuits is determined. Because along with recognizing man’s Rights, the Declaration notes men institute government to secure them and that government does so only with the consent of the governed. It thus becomes vital for the governed to so value the Right to Fail they refuse to consent to any plan by government to take it from them. They must consent to striving in an environment, secured by government, in which failure is a valued result.

If We The People consent to government which takes away our Right to Fail, we consent to government which will take away our other Rights as well. Securing a government with power to eradicate our individual Pursuits, we secure a government with power to define our individual Happiness. When Happiness is defined for the many by government, individuals must surrender the rest of their Rights to facilitate the government’s Pursuit. Those refusing to do so are threats both to government and the governed. We all know how threats are dealt with.

This is the question Americans must answer. Will we be allowed to fail or not? The Left, and far too many on the Right, say, “No! No one must fail!” There remains, however, a minority which understands the value in failure. It understands the pain in little failures along the way are motivation to great Happiness at the end of the Pursuit! It understands failure is not an impediment to Happiness, it is a stepping stone to a successful Pursuit. It knows temporary suffering in a failure while Pursuing does not compare to the eternal suffering in failing to Pursue at all.

Celebrating your Independence today, understand what it means to be Independent! It means your success or failure in the Pursuit of Happiness depends on you, not the government. It means you not only can, but will, fail while in Pursuit. When your Rights are secured by government and not defined by it, you embrace failure as a blessing and not a curse, as a teacher and not a thief. You truly have Life, you are truly at Liberty, you have the best chance for a successful Pursuit!

In college, I hung a poster on my wall which read, “A ship in a harbor is safe. But that is not what ships were made for!” Enjoy your Pursuit! Godspeed!

Blue Collar Muse

Popularity: 26% [?]

Tags: Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Liberty, Life, The Pursuit of Happiness, US Constitution

A friend sent me a link to an editorial from the Hartford (CT) Courant authored by Robert Satter. Mr. Satter is a judge trial referee in Hartford Superior Court and author of “Under the Gold Dome — An Insider’s Look at the Connecticut Legislature.” He is also, in my opinion, a very dangerous man. He has power and influence and is using them to undermine the foundation on which our country was built.

Connecticut votes in November on whether or not to hold a Constitutional Convention to amend or revise its constitution. Some want to do so to give citizens the right to directly petition their government via the Initiative and Referendum (I&R) process. I&R allows an issue to be voted on by putting it put on the ballot by citizen request as opposed to legislative action.

The I&R process is not well liked by politicians as it usually limits what they can do. It may curtail their ability to raise taxes at will or to take your property if you don’t want to sell. As such, it is not easy for citizens to actually get something on the ballot. I&R may be granted by a state’s constitution but laws governing the process are made by the legislature. Lawmakers determine how many signatures are needed to get an issue on the ballot and the length of time available to collect them. Such power often impedes the process so effectively it’s a wonder initiatives manage to get on the ballot at all. But If Mr. Satter had his way, you wouldn’t even have that right. Mere citizens aren’t qualified to speak to issues.

Satter starts out well enough.

The right of initiative is the right of citizens to propose laws or constitutional amendments that, if approved by a majority vote, have the force of law.

From there, his description of I&R makes it appear those desiring the power to propose a law are selfish, power mad and out to corrupt the process. Well, he’s right about that, too. He just got the subject wrong. Satter thinks voters are like that. In reality it’s a better description of lawmakers. I&R is a powerful tool for citizens to curb the excesses of government, not the other way around.

When Mr. Satter says I&R proposals

… are drafted by private lawyers representing narrow interest groups. Their wording frames the issue and cannot later be changed.

he’s arguing that’s bad for citizens. Has Satter never heard of lobbyists, lawyers and lawmakers? Are outsider Environmentalists OK as a narrow interest group when seeking to impose their view on the state but citizens who actually have to live with the laws passed too narrow an interest group to have an interest in the law?

Mr Satter says,

Those signatures are not spontaneously given by the public, but must be actively solicited. In the initiative states, a cottage industry of signature solicitors has sprung up. In California, it typically costs $1 million to obtain the requisite number of signers.

Does he not understand support for a bill in the legislature does not spontaneously arise? Lawmakers expend huge amounts of time and energy actively soliciting the support of their colleagues. He dismisses the labor by which I&R signatures are gathered and ridicules those doing the work as a “cottage industry”. He misleads readers by irresponsibly using the figure of $1 million with no context. If signature gathering is a cottage industry, what sort of “industry” is lobbying the legislature to get an issue on the ballot? Satter does not say where the money comes from to pay for signature gathering, just that it is spent. But these are not tax dollars, they are privately raised funds. If private money should not be used to influence the legislative process, I’ll have to point again to lobbyists. Satter doesn’t provide the total spent on lobbying the Connecticut legislature when it is in session. Something tells me it’s more than $1 million.

But Robert Satter’s worst insult to the intelligence and character of voters is saved for later.

And how is the campaign over initiative proposals waged? It is waged by slogans, bumper stickers, 10-second sound bites and by TV ads as if selling toothpaste. The vote is yes or no, up or down.

There is not the deliberation and accommodation of the legislative process in which bills are carefully scrutinized by committees of cognizance, subjected to a public hearing, debated in both chambers and ultimately signed by the governor. In that process, all sides of the issue are explored, its relationship to other matters of public policy considered, negotiations between opposing sides conducted, and compromises and changes of wording made.

In lawmaking by plebiscite, people rarely read the exact language of the propositions. They vote their general impression of the issue.

Do only I&R campaigns use slogans and sound bites? Does Satter really believe every bill passed is carefully read, deliberated and analyzed before being voted on? Is Satter actually arguing amendments hung on bills at the last second are completely understood and their ramifications tested and deemed acceptable? Is he seriously arguing citizens are incapable evaluating the impact their proposed I&R will have? It is true citizens don’t debate the possible impact of the law for a couple of weeks before passing it and hoping for the best as the legislature does. Citizens are forced to live with the actual results of those laws. Tens of thousands of hours of debate and analysis then take place in legislative chambers known as kitchen tables, water coolers, carpools and the like. By the time an I&R is proposed, the issue is well known. Usually because citizens have already asked the legislature to fix the problem and they have refused. In such cases, I&R is often the citizens last resort.

But Robert Satter thinks that’s a bad thing. The people of Connecticut, or anywhere else, shouldn’t be able to insist their lawmakers really represent them. Citizens are ignorant peasants without the requisite intelligence, interest, time or ability to understand the workings of government. That lofty pursuit is best left to better men. Satter’s premise is flawed. His conclusions are wrong. His arrogant contempt for citizens he seems to believe should be ruled over as opposed to represented is offensive. I&R is precisely what Connecticut and every other state without it needs, including my state of Tennessee. Without it, we are at the mercy of elitists like Robert Satter. While he may consider that a good thing, I find the prospect terrifying.

Blue Collar Muse.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Tags: Connecticut Constitutional Convention, Hartford, Initiative and Referendum, Robert Satter, We the People

What Circle? 23 Music Circle East - Nashville, TN to be precise. And broken may be the kindest way to describe what the owner of the business at that address faces. Shattered, decimated, mercilessly hounded into oblivion all come to mind to describe what Joy Ford, owner of Country International Records (CIR), is facing at the hands of Nashville’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA).

For almost 30 years, Ford and her late husband Sherman, have operated one of the first studios on what would become Music Row at that address. While much of the rest of the Row has gone corporate with multi-million dollar facilities, CIR remains privately owned. This earns CIR the classification of an Independent label or “Indie” as it’s known in the trade. Usually reserved for recent entries into the field who don’t have the juice to or don’t want to compete with the big boys, in the case of CIR, it’s deceptive. Joy and Sherman Ford were making music, writing songs, developing artists and cutting tracks at Country International Records long before many of the current Music Row elite were born. The walls of Ford’s business are filled with pictures of the legends she’s personally worked with. Stars like George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Tracy Lawrence, Tim McGraw and more.

If government has anything to say about it, that won’t be true much longer. Chas Sisk at The Tennessean, who has covered the story since March, reports,

The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency filed papers in a Nashville court Friday to start a process that would take the offices of Country International Records at 23 Music Circle East.

The action, the city’s first test of eminent domain since the state legislature tightened condemnation laws two years ago, was taken after the agency determined that negotiations with building owner Joy Ford would not work, said Joe Cain, the agency’s development director.

“We’re not having any conversation,” Cain said. “We’re hopeful that now she will meet with us.”

The government is filing papers to take Ford’s property. When they asked her to sell she said, “No”. Problem was, Joe Cain and MDHA didn’t like that answer. Having determined “negotiations with the building owner Joy Ford would not work” (read: this woman doesn’t want to sell her property at any price) they are having her property condemned as “blighted”. If she will not sell, they’ll force her out. With the pressure on, they’re “hopeful that now she will meet with” them. Mr. Cain and the MDHA seem to be confusing conversation with coercion.

A casual read of the issue sounds like a business deal moving along, working out small contractual differences as it goes. A “win-win” in the buzzword parlance of business. Except Joy doesn’t want that sort of victory. Her idea of winning is Joe Cain and MDHA leave her alone to continue the dream she and her late husband pursued for years, making music. This being America, she should be able to do exactly that. The property is hers. She owns it free and clear. She pays all her taxes. To most Americans that means that she can do what she wants with her land as long as it’s legal.

Welcome to the real blight in this story. Just a week after Kelo v New London’s 3rd anniversary and in a week celebrating the quintessential remembrance of American freedom from governmental tyranny, the spreading blight of governmental abuse of Eminent Domain has arrived in Nashville. The arrogance and hubris of Joe Cain and MDHA reminds one of the royalty we opposed for our freedom over 230 years ago. If Joe Cain has his way, Joy Ford’s dreams and right to do what she pleases with her own property will be bulldozed to make room for a $100 million dollar development deal with a private company in Texas.

At it’s heart, this is the real issue. True Eminent Domain is about the government requisitioning property for Public Use for the good of all the citizens. This is just a business deal. And it’s the stuff of Hollywood, not Music City. It reads like a boilerplate movie script, not a hot Billboard single. The widow v the conglomerate. MDHA signed a deal with Houston based Lionstone Group, a private developer, to sell them the property they wanted at cost. They inked this Music Row deal in March of this year. At the time, Ford’s property was not theirs to sell yet they sold it anyway! Now, they are using strongarm tactics to keep a promise they had no right to make. In doing so, they are not simply trampling on the rights and dreams of one woman. They are making a mockery of our Constitution and rights and values paid for with the blood of tens of thousands. The question is, will this movie script, as yet unfinished, have a happy ending? How will this sad country song finish after the bridge?

I met Joy Ford just this afternoon. But three weeks ago I wrote ‘Eminent Domain, the other ED’ in which I said,

New ED will be eradicated when Americans choose to reclaim their constitutional rights and responsibilities. We must trust ourselves and our neighbors more than those in government when making decisions about our property. We must reject the idea government is our source and reclaim the notion we are responsible for ourselves and have specific rights, including to own property. And we must be willing to defend our Right to private property ownership by exercising our other Rights as needed. The Right to Free Speech, to Assemble, of the Press and perhaps even to Keep and Bear Arms will be needed to stem the encroachment of government on our Rights.

Joy Ford is going to fight. She’s going to need some help. I’ll stand with her. This is just the first of several posts I have planned. Phil Valentine will stand with her. Metro Councilman Mike Craddock will fight for Joy. There are some country music legends chiming in, too.

I’m inviting you to stand with her as well. I’m asking you to be like Bill R. from Washington, DC. He read Joy’s story in the Tennessean and walked from downtown’s Renaissance Hotel to Joy’s part of Music Circle. Having seen her place and her plight, he wrote her a check and an encouraging note. His actions said he believed this is a fight Joy can win but it will take more than just her. Watch this space, tune in to Phil and other talk radio shows for more information. Call Mayor Dean and your Council member. Put the pressure on and keep it on. The MDHA is saying they are doing this to benefit all the people, not just one developer. Tell them there are limits to how far you want them going in your name.

Blue Collar Muse

SEE ALSO:

Eminent Domain Use Violates Nashville Private Property Rights at Truman’s Take.

Abusing Eminent Domain at An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings.

City Starts to Seize Music Row Property, Chris Cannon at News Channel 5. Video report, pics and video transcript.

Joy Ford Fights for Property, John Dunn at Fox 17 News.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Tags: Country International Records, Eminent Domain, Joe Cain, Joy Ford, Lionstone Group, MDHA, Music Row, Private Development