David Raphael assuming the necessary role of skeptic posted:
"I wouldn't believe everything you hear about those "EPA liberals."
Social Security doesn't get revoked, you simply pay taxes on income beyond a
certain level. There must be more to the story than was posted. I keep
running across a whole mess of these outrageous stories about what our
government does. They're beginning to sound a like. "Some guy's got a yard
full of beautiful old trucks and the government (read EPA, local pointy
headed planners, county zoning guys, et. al) says they've got to be crushed."
starting to get a little familiar to me."
And then Craig observed:
"i'm willing to bet a greater danger for all of us are local city
councils, anyways - central texas has several towns where it is LEGAL for the
city to come on your property and tow away 'junk' vehicles, no matter how
much money you have spent restoring them. useta be you could shoot a man down
here fer traspassin'....................."
We are wise to be skeptical of any individual story, but also have no
doubt that not only are most of them true, but you are only hearing about the
few that somebody bothered to make a fuss about. Most of us have busy lives
to live and it is far easier to just "go along to get along." You know the
sayings, "Don't rock the boat," "You can't fight city hall." Well, you get
the picture.
Let me give you just a little "ferinstance." The shop just directly
across the street from mine is an appliance repair business. "Red" the owner
has snowy white hair now, and he would have retired years ago, but he can't
sell the business because his line of work is dying and everybody damn well
knows it. Well, Red, like us oletruckers, is a car guy. He has a couple of
older Chevy trucks and a '46 Ford that he's had for 35 years in the back of
his shop. His place is neatly fenced and the chainlink fence has a covering
so nobody can get offended by seeing his stock of old machines and his hobby
cars.
Well, nobody but one officious little old bittie with a grudge against
Red's son who works on his old VWs in the back of the shop on weekends and
listens to his rock and roll music at some anti social volume. I can
certainly understand her problem, as I am hardly a fan of rock music (at any
volume) myself.
She lives right next to a noise problem and the local P.D. can't do a
thing until after 10 at night to help her. Now, somehow this officious LOL
(little old lady) has figured out another solution to her problem. She had
RED violated for storing "non business related property" in his lot! She
violated him to the city zoning NAZIs and they have ORDERED him to remove the
offending cars PDQ.
That story is bad enough, but it gets even more personal. My shop is
right across the street from Red's, zoned the same way, and also like Red's
the back lot is full of historical automotive treasures that could be ordered
off the premises at the drop of a zoning commizar's hat for no better reason
than some neighbor decides they don't like me. Like Red, I OWN my place, but
that no longer makes any difference.
What is the moral of this little story? Nobody will read about these
stories in the paper or see them on TV. Nobody will know about them at all
except those of us directly concerned with them or within earshot at the pub.
If I am ordered to remove my old AD and the other items so lovingly collected
over the years you won't hear about that either.
David has a healthy skepticism about some of these stories and that is as
it should be. Some of them are bound to be blown out of proportion, a few may
even be made from whole cloth. But please know that for every little story of
domestic fascism you hear about, there will be hundreds or even thousands
that go on in complete obscurity. As our irreplacable liberties are further
eroded by and swapped for some small measure of temporary ease, these little
tragedies can only increase.
Paul O'Neil, Hudson29@aol.com
1951 Chevrolet 3600 Pickup Project, See it at:
The Poor Man's Advanced Design Tech Tips Page
http://home.earthlink.net/~conntest47/
Fullerton, California USA
AEROMARK - Need Rubber Stamps or Signs? See:
http://hometown.aol.com/hudson29/myhomepage/index.html
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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