This is America, property rights count

Date published: 5/2/2003

Am I under a misapprehension that we live not only in the greatest nation in the world, but also a free society? I believe that, under our Constitution and Bill of Rights, our freedoms are protected and our rights to personal and real property are inviolable.

However, this is not so according to the National Park Service, the Civil War Trust, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and conservationists.

Under the NPS rules, one cannot develop private lands without their approval and the approval under the bureaucratic system they have created within the government.

Now the mischievous tacticians within the Civil War Trust pronounce that a landowner must sell or give to the trust some of their land because they are Civil War hobbyists. Doesn't this violate Congress's recent pronouncement that there must be a willing seller?

Not only must the landowner give up land to the trust at their dictated prices, but the Army Corps of Engineers also wants "mitigation" before they give bureaucratic approval. Mitigation is another word for thievery of land from a private landowner, without compensation.

Perhaps President Bush will some day get word of these bureaucratic violations of individual and property freedoms and change these terrorists acts against private landowners.

While visiting in Atlanta, Ga., recently, I went to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. As I drove near the park I saw a sign that said, "40 Acres for sale--$200,000.00 per acre."

Of course this will astound the NPS, preservationists and trust members, who do not have the vision for value and opportunities created by development. Is Chancellorsville area land more valuable than the insignificant Kennesaw area land?

Let's get unsavory tactics out of Chancellorsville and put the NPS as stewards of park land, not private property.

Carl M. Grenn

Fredericksburg

Date published: 5/2/2003