After the Tea Party took over the GOP in 2011, we began
hearing talk of a strange and frightening thing…. Agenda 21. This agenda, we
were told, was a devious secret plot by the United Nations to secure global
domination by taking away our property, our cars, and our toilets, and making
us ride the bus, or something like that. Planning? Planning is the work of
Satan and his minions! The John Birch Society threw the gasoline on the fire,
and the Tea Partiers, 912 groups, and the liberty crowd fanned the flames.
The outrage grew and grew to the point where small town
planning board members were harassed by irate residents about something they’d
never even heard of. Reliable media sources like WorldNetDaily, infowars, Glenn
Beck, and of course Fox News were churning out the agitprop about this
nefarious plot.
Agenda 21 is a document that came out of the UN and the Rio
Conference on the environment – in 1992. Yes, that’s over 20 years ago. And
yes, if they planned to take over the world, it’s the slowest takeover of
anything ever. It’s a non-binding set of resolutions, intended to encourage
countries to conserve resources, protect open spaces, and promoting sustainable
growth. You can see why that would become a tinfoil encrusted nightmare. How dare anyone tell us to conserve!
That’s commie talk! Freedom means using up everything and never having to say
we’re sorry!
The flames spread. Agenda 21 conspiracy films were shown
at the Majestic Theater in Conway. Books were written. Videos were made.
Propaganda was spewed. Even though the Tea/Birch crowd was mostly deposed from
our state government in 2012, eventually the tinfoil trail led to the NH State
House.
Last year a bill was proposed to phase out lead sinkers
and jigs from fishing tackle. The lead kills our loons. This seemed pretty
reasonable, and there was science behind it. This simple bill turned into hours
of debate thanks to the Agenda 21 crowd. Apparently part of the UN’s slow
motion plan for global domination includes invading the tackle boxes of NH
fishermen. Perhaps most egregious was a bill to allow municipalities to work
together to finance and build water and sewer projects. It turns out that the
UN doesn’t just want your tackle box; it wants to take over your toilet. The
wailing and gnashing of teeth went on for hours, and still the bill passed by a
huge margin.
The Reynolds rappers are still with us. Last week I sat
through part of the hearing on HB 1573, a bill that would eliminate all nine of
the regional planning commissions in the state. This is because NH’s regional
planners are engaged in a project to have a dialogue about planning for the
future. It’s called Granite State Future. The dialogue includes business,
towns, cities, regions, old timers, newcomers, and anyone that wants to be
involved. The discussion involves nefarious stuff like how best to manage our
shared natural resources going into the future – like forests and water. This
has become linked to Agenda 21, by the tinfoil brigade, who believe that
planning ahead is really all about the permanent loss of your privacy rights
and of course, the UN’s plot for global domination.
The first speaker I heard was Rep. Glen Cordelli from
Tuftonboro, who muttered dire warnings about regional planning commissions, and
how “advice is not their game, power is their game.” A man from Jaffrey spoke
about how the RPCs are an asset to his small town, because they have resources
that the town does not. Planning board members from a variety of towns praised
the RPCs and the help they provide. Rep. Bill Butynski from Hinsdale testified
that property taxes would have gone up in his town if the RPCs hadn’t helped
with their process of rebuilding the bridge to Vermont. Carol Miller, Director
of Technologies at the Dept. of Resources and Economic Development, is focused
on broadband needs, and has worked with the RPCs to develop a state broadband
plan. She said she’s found the data they provided from the various regions to
be invaluable. Bill McNally, a Bircher from Windham handed out information on
Granite State Futures and Agenda 21.
That’s how
it went. Speakers who were well versed on the planning needs of their towns
were followed by speakers who were not at all interested in the needs of our
state – just convinced that there is a conspiracy afoot to defraud them of
their property and pave the way for the UN takeover. Or something like that. It
was painful. The Free State Project is heavily involved with the destruction of
the RPCs – and indeed all planning. In their Randian paradise, we’re all free
market buccaneers with no rules or regulations – every pirate for himself. And
if your water gets Freedomed, as W. Virginia’s recently did, well, that’s too
bad. You’ll just have to buy your water on the freedom market.
Without planning and zoning that’s what we get. Pirates
come in and take over. We saw it happen in Tamworth with the racetrack. When Tamworth
voted on zoning, Club Motorsports came in and bought the election. A bill
changing the definition of a racetrack (SB 458) was allowed to glide silently
through the legislature, and most of those who kept the silence were rewarded
with campaign donations from Club Motorsports.
Where there is no planning and zoning, the big money privateers come in and do what they want. If
the town doesn’t like it, well, suck it up buttercup, because freedom.
A few of the tinfoil legislative brigade have tired of
wreaking havoc in their own towns, and are moving on to mischief in other
communities. They’ve been working successfully in Rindge, where all the talk of
the evils of gummint money, led by Rep. John Burt of Goffstown, has created an
ugly us v. them climate in the town. Rindge has petitioned article this year on
their warrant that specifies that the town would not be able to accept any
federal funds, except once a year at town meeting. In other words, natural
disaster like the flood in Alstead or the devastation created up north by
Hurricane Irene? Too bad. You’ll have to wait till March to vote on getting
federal aid to rebuild your roads, bridges, or businesses. That’ll teach the
feds!
As always, this serves to underscore how badly we are
served by the NH media. Our only statewide media doesn’t report on these
stories, so people around the state don’t connect what’s happening in their
town to other areas of the state.
© sbruce 2014
published as a biweekly column in the Conway Daily Sun Newspaper
