Eminent Domain

Picture yourself waking up one morning in your family's home, the same home your family has lived in ever since you were born, to find your parents staring at an eviction notice telling them that your house is going to be taken by the government and used to build a new Target, a Costco, condominiums, a limousine parking lot. "But we have lived here for 14 years, they can't do that!" you might think, when in reality, worse cases can be found. A 70-year-old widow being shoved out of her home in New Jersey, where she could not afford to live without the house that she grew up in, that her and her husband spent their last years together, even if the government paid her what her house was worth. With over 10,000 cases of what the government calls "Eminent Domain" taking place between the years 1998 to 2002 in over a dozen states, American citizens need to take action against one of the greatest injustices that could be done to our Citizens and their rights; taking away the right to private property.

In the United States Constitution, Amendment 5 it states that "Nor [shall any citizen] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." having examined these cases myself, None of these cases have had any due process, nor have they been compensated, as a matter of fact, they are not even being used for the public. However, do you think that the public will use a limousine parking lot that is for customers of Donald Trump?

Aside from what has already been stated, the right to private property is important in another way. Without the right to private property, the government essentially owns everything. You don't own anything. Which means, what you do have the government can take away. This is communism. If the government has the right and power to take what you have, you don't have any rights at all, because you are dependent on the government for everything, and you can't do anything by yourself; you have to have the governments permission. That is wrong. And that is also what is going to happen if two things occur: 1) The government continues to take private property and diminish other rights in the act. 2) If the people who are supposed to run the government (the citizens of the united states) do continue to sit back and watch a group of politicians take over what we have enjoyed for nearly 250 years.

With that said, the fact that the state of Georgia is by far the toughest on the use of Eminent Domain and is even now working on legislation that will tighten those laws is no cause for relaxation. In nearby Stockbridge, longtime land owners are losing their so the government can given it to a private developer to build a new downtown that will generate more tax dollars for them. If you don't believe this is something that needs to be stopped,wait until some devolper comes along with a plan to boost the amount of money your local government makes that involves tearing down your property. So the reletive safty we feel now should not be an excuse for you to continue to take a back seat in this government. We need to work to get Federal legislation on the table, and nothing short of that should be the ultimate goal, and in order to achieve that goal the national eye needs to be turned on to this issue; before another person has to endure the hardship of governmental fraud.