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Maryland County Abolishes Agenda 21

– now for the rest of the country


James Simpson, 23 February 2011 06:45

Campaign For Liberty


http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=40884

The November elections marked a sea change in the political landscape at every level of
government nationwide. Right now, all eyes are focused on the Wisconsin standoff
between Governor Scott Walker and the public employee unions. But under the radar,
completely overlooked by the mass media, is the unprecedented move recently taken
by newly-elected Carroll County, Maryland Commissioners Richard Rothschild, Robin
Frazier, Haven Shoemaker, Dave Roush and Doug Howard, who abolished the County’s
Office of Sustainability. They then voted unanimously to drop out of the UN’s
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). They are the first
governmental organization to do so.

Related Agenda 21 Reports

 Agenda 21:Part I: A Global Economic Disaster in the Making


 Agenda 21: Part II: Globalist Totalitarian Dictatorship Invading a ...
 Agenda 21 UN: The History of Sustainable Development - Connecting t...
 Sustainable Communities - A Transformation of Virginia
 China's Ghost Cities: A Result of Agenda 21?

For those unfamiliar with the sustainable development agenda, this might not seem like
much, but it is huge. If you have been following my recent series on the subject, you
will know that local Sustainability offices, under the auspices of the ICLEI’s Local
Governments for Sustainability, are the tiny, visible tip of the monstrous Agenda 21
sustainable development iceberg, the ultimate goal of which is to transform American
society from the bottom up into a socialist ward of UN global governance. As of today,
there are approximately 600 local governments in the US who have signed on to this
Trojan Horse.

Minus one.
All the commissioners are to be commended for this bold decision. Predictably, the left
is up in arms. The commissioners have already been challenged to a debate on their
decision and the other side wants to bring in heavy hitters from the EPA and the
Maryland Department of the Environment in an attempt to discredit the commission’s
earth shattering (figuratively) move.

I think they took some skin.

Richard Rothschild led the charge. He campaigned on this issue, framing it,
appropriately, as a matter of private property rights. In an American Thinker article he
co-wrote last summer with Scott Strzelczyk, he explained that: “Sustainability has less
to do with the environment, and everything to do with economics. It is an attack on
capitalism, and an attack on America's middle class lifestyle.”

Rich recently discussed Agenda 21 in a radio address. Listen here. This is the kind of
leadership that has been sorely lacking at all levels of government and hopefully his
example and that of his fellow commissioners will embolden more such individuals to
step forward before it is too late.

Following the election, Carroll County’s sustainability director saw the writing on the
wall and opted for early retirement. He then began taking pot shots at the new
commissioners in the local paper. After being party to the biggest attempted land grab
in the county’s history under the “Smart Growth” banner, this clown had the gall to
wonder aloud how anyone could believe a UN planning document marketed as “Smart
Growth” could affect Carroll County. I have a suggestion for him: read the documents.

Rich responded to these attacks with an in-depth explanation of Sustainable


Development published in the local paper:

Sustainability invokes government power to enforce activists' views of


environmentalism. They want to replace farmers', ranchers' and other landowners'
concept of stewardship with government-centric control. It merges environmentalism
and socialism to expand government into every aspect of our lives, including land use,
food production, housing, transportation, manufacturing, energy rationing and even
health care.

He identifies the ICLEI for what it really is:

…an organization with extreme beliefs on global warming that promotes United Nations'
big-government socio-economic policies. The UN Millennium Papers caution activists not
to mention the UN Agenda because of potential American backlash, and instruct, "So,
we call our process something else, such as comprehensive planning, growth
management, or smart growth."
Rich cites egregious examples of “sustainability: in practice:

Sustainability disciples use euphemistic terms like "environmental justice," and collude
with government to enforce oppressive regulations at any cost. Don't believe me?
Google "EPA TMDL lawsuits" and see the list of activists that sue the EPA and obtain
federal court opinions that embolden oppressive regulations.

Why does the EPA advertise these lawsuits on its website? Ironically, every time the
EPA loses to an environmental group, it grows stronger as courts direct the EPA to
enforce. The courts have become unwitting accomplices to government overreach. One
Maryland county faces $1.8 billion in regulatory mandates, possibly enough to push
them to the brink of insolvency.

In another bid for expansion, government auctions off imaginary carbon credits. The
2008 northeast auction raised $600 million in hidden taxes that are passed on to
struggling families through higher utility costs.

The words “sustainable development” deceitfully suggest environmental conservation,


and people who focus on the slogans without reading the fine print come up with
simplistic conclusions like “it’s all about the environment.” In reality, Agenda-21 based
sustainability programs seek government control of land, labor and capital in order to
promote “social justice”.

As documented in Part I of this series, buzzwords for socialism like “social justice,”
“collective,” “equity,” and “redistribution,” are used throughout Agenda 21. If you study
the documents that spawned Agenda 21, most written by prominent socialist leaders
from around the world, it is clear that their key concerns are: 1. abolishing private
property and redistributing it according to socialist goals worldwide, and 2. herding
humans into small urban communities where, stripped of freedom and mobility, we will
live and work according to government diktat.

For example, the Millennium Project calls for a global tax on all countries to provide
monies for developing and third world countries. “Environmental sustainability” is only
one of eight Millennium Development Goals. The rest are a laundry list of anti-poverty
and health programs; laudable goals maybe, but nothing to do with Chesapeake Bay
pollution to say the least. Furthermore, these countries have received billions in aid
from the U.S. and elsewhere for decades, but because they are usually run by corrupt
dictators of one form or another, such aid serves only to prop them up, thereby
perpetuating the problem rather than solve it. But they’re socialists, so it’s okay.

More to the point, Dr. Michael Coffman’s famous Agenda 21 “Wildlands” map
reveals the endgame of Agenda 21:
Agenda 21 is being implemented throughout the U.S., as the quiet work of the ICLEI
finds its way into state law and county code. The following video reveals how it was
pushed in rural Richland County, South Carolina, sold as a “Comprehensive Plan” called
“Vision 20/20”. Explained by state legislator Joe Neal – a Democrat– the video provides
a diagram chillingly similar to the Wildlands map, limiting development to small urban
centers and leaving rural communities to die on the vine.

If rep. Neal’s sincere appeal in this four minute video doesn’t convince you, his full two
hour presentation is available here.

The Comprehensive Plan stalled in 2003 due to citizen resistance but passed in 2009. It
calls for creation of “Urban Villages… in contrast with suburban sprawl and inefficient
land use.” Note the negative associations with “suburban sprawl.” They will fix that.

The Plan directs that, “Throughout the suburban areas infill development (emphasis
added) should be a focus in residential, commercial and industrial areas,
complementing and connecting the existing sprawl pattern. Housing should be varied at
4-8 units per acre… Underutilized commercial strips and big-box retail parcels can be
divided and redeveloped into smaller blocks with street extensions and pedestrian-
friendly designs.”

So if you moved to the suburbs to get some room, avoid urban crime and get better
schooling for your kids, forget it. They’re going to tell you how and where to live,
because they deem single family suburban homes “unsustainable”. The Richland County
plan is similar to the description for “20 Minute Neighborhoods” advocated by the Mayor
of Portland, Oregon. The official map looks eerily similar to Dr. Coffman’s.

The state of Virginia has gone all out in a similar effort. Virginia House Bill 3202, signed
into law by Democrat governor Tim Kaine in 2007 with bi-partisan support, requires 67
counties and cities to create “Urban Development Areas” based on decennial population
growth criteria. The UDAs must be able to accommodate that growth and must include
features like “pedestrian friendly” design, mixed use housing and minimum housing
densities that presume an urban landscape and encourage low-income subsidized
housing. The buzzwords change, but the description is virtually identical to Richland
County, South Carolina, Portland, Oregon, and countless other towns throughout
America.

The despotic nature of these mandates undermines the entire concept of private
property, a key goal stated prominently in Agenda 21 documents. It removes decision
making latitude from both property owners and local governments, and ruins property
values, while completely changing the complexion and character of rural counties. Add
to this the sheer lunacy of requiring vast new housing projects when mortgage
foreclosures are just beginning to recover from all time high rates. Construction
companies like the guaranteed business these mandates insure, a big reason why they
enjoy bi-partisan support. But at what cost to our communities, our Constitution, our
very way of life?

Finally, there is another even more pernicious factor that may underline politicians’
motivations to support this wholesale assault on private property. UDAs are supposed
to accommodate ten to twenty years of population growth within each designated
county. According to the Census Bureau, between 1990 and 2010, Virginia’s population
grew by about 2 million people. Over 25 percent of that population growth was
due to an influx of Hispanics. The Hispanic population represented a mere 3 percent
of Virginia’s population in 1990, but since then has grown 300 percent, from 160,000
people to 632,000!

In some cases, Hispanic population growth dwarfs all else. In Prince William County for
example, in 1990 the Hispanic population was a modest 4 percent of the population:
9,662 people. Today it stands at 81,460, accounting for almost 40 percent of total
population growth in the county! Between 2000 and 2010 Chesterfield County grew
by 56,000 people. Of that total, 15,247, almost 30 percent, were Hispanic. For
comparison, the white population only increased by 16,507 people. Whites represented
77 percent of the total population in 2000, Hispanics only 3 percent. The Hispanic
population growth rate in Chesterfield County between 1990 and 2010 was over 800
percent.
These growth rates cannot be accounted for by births. Nationwide, the Hispanic
population has grown by about 25 million since 1990. There are at least 12 million
illegals in the U.S. currently, mostly Hispanics. So at a minimum, about half of the
growth rate in the U.S. Hispanic population since 1990 is due to illegals.

By demanding UDAs in counties with high population growth rates, the


Virginia legislature is pandering to illegal immigrants. Doing so will change
not only the character, but the voting preferences of its rural counties. It
doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who will get the majority of those votes if
the Democrats manage to pass an amnesty law. With the various vote fraud
strategies being employed by leftists nationwide, amnesty may not even be necessary.
If they succeed here, redistricting will become irrelevant.

This is another covert strategy embedded in Agenda 21, perhaps the most dangerous of
all, that has so far flown completely under the radar. Although Carroll County’s actions
were not related to illegal immigration, the threat of dense low-income urbanized
development around their rural towns in order to promote “social equity” was a factor.

Rothschild said, “They talk about sustainability promoting ‘healthier and better
balanced’ neighborhoods. What do they mean? The practical result is that the county is
burdened with people with no pattern of personal responsibility, people who do not
share the values of the community, all for the sake of ‘equity.’ But the underlying
purpose is to shift voting patterns from right to left.”

The Carroll County commissioners have taken a bold step in publicly calling out the
ICLEI and Agenda 21, but their work has just begun. “We have our own rural
agricultural diversity and it is on the endangered species list.” Rothschild quipped.

This is an issue custom made for Tea Parties. Agenda 21 is being implemented at the
state and local level, where citizen activists have the most leverage. Tea Parties
nationwide need to get behind this effort and bring the dangers of Agenda 21-based
planning dogma to the attention of state and local governments everywhere. It is
critical to educate, support and encourage sympathetic legislators at all levels of
government and work furiously to oust legislators and bureaucrats who, for whatever
reason, refuse to abandon this evil agenda.

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