Socialism Threatens Property Rights In America By Gordon Bishop on 10/28/03 More and more I get the feeling that New Jersey’s judges and politicians are moving toward the mind-set of socialists and communists. The issue is property rights. Who owns your property: You or your government? Of course, you do. Our Constitution says so. This is America. Not the communist People’s Republic of China, or Cuba, or the old Soviet Union. We are a free and independent nation. No longer. In more and more court decisions, judges are willing to confiscate your property under the “eminent domain” rule that permits the taking of property for such public uses as transportation corridors (highways, rail lines, bridges, etc.). When government seizes your property under “eminent domain,” government must pay you the fair market value of your property. Well, it always doesn’t work that way. Take the recent land-use case in North Brunswick. Local officials decided to usurp a property owner’s rights by condemning his 104-acre farm for “open space.” That’s right – open space! What’s happening is that local officials believe they can now condemn property for open space. In the case of New Brunswick, local officials believed it was in the public interest to condemn a farmer’s property so the township could have some ball fields and walking trails on it. The farmer already had plans to sell his land to U.S. Home Corp. of Houston to build 400 homes for senior citizens. Yes, our deserving “seasoned” citizens who need housing as our population becomes grayer and grayer. Too bad, you old folks! Ball fields and trails have a higher prirority in North Brunswick than the quality of life of our seniors. State Superior Court Judge James Hurley, a Democrat, ruled that North Brunswick could use its right of “eminent domain” to purchase the land and preserve it. So much for farmer Edwin Otken and his dream of a decent seniors community to serve New Jersey’s aging population. North Brunswick has agreed to buy the large tract of farmland for its “appraised value” of $6 million. The farmer says U.S. Home Corp. has offered several million dollars more. This is not an issue over money, although the farmer and U.S. Home Corp. are certainly getting the royal shaft from a handful of local officials and a liberal judge. Liberalism in America in recent years has come to represent the principles of socialism, Marxism and, yes, even Communism, where the state assumes all power over the people. Today’s liberal politcal system is about more and more Big Government, and less and less Freedom for the working taxpayers. Government forgets that without the working taxpayers there can be no government, large or small. How does a little, old farmer fight the massive and intimitating government bureaucracies and their liberal, anti-constitutional collaborators – the judicial system itself. Forget about our elected politicians. Most major decisions today are made by the courts – not Congress. Nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court and nine Justices on the Supreme Courts of our states. They have become the absolute rulers of our destiny. Our sacred U.S. Constitution has become fair game for liberals rewriting American history with each socialist-Marxist (and even Communist) decision. We may soon have to change our beloved national identity to AMERIKA! If our national Constitution does not prevail, we, the working taxpayers, will find ourselves in the same situation as Cuba, China and the former Soviet Union. Is this what we really want from those we elect to public office, who, in turn, appoint our judges, who, in turn, pervert and subvert our Constitution? Wake up, America, before all of our Freedoms are gone, and forgotten! Gordon Bishop is a national award-winning author, historian and syndicated columnist. Copyright © 2002-2003 Gordon Bishop.