The more you know the harder it is to just condense UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development into a short paragraph. Someone who came to one of our lectures recently said: "Just give it to me quickly, I'm busy." Who isn't busy? On the one hand we just want to say: Take my word for it, and on the other hand there are the skeptics who think we've made it up since they didn't read it in the local paper or see it on FoxNewsCNNMSNBCCSPAN.
Everyone is being impacted by it, but since your government uses different names for all of the programs (it's alphabet soup), you don't recognize that there is a connection when you hear, for instance:
Your 10-year old child won't be automatically going to the middle school in your neighborhood but has to apply for admission. S/he may end up across town where you'll never attend parent/teacher night, never become friends with other parents, and not volunteer in the classroom (and hear the lesson) because you can't make it home from your job in time.
Your business is being subjected to a Business Improvement Tax by your local government and you have to pay even though your customers now have to put money in the meters, pay huge parking tickets, and can go to the Mall with free parking.
You inherited a piece of land from your folks but now you find out that it's impossible to build anything on it because the County has an ordinance that won't allow you to install a septic system on your 40 acres. And the Biotic Resource Corridor that it's in won't allow development anyway. And besides you're in the 'viewshed' so bicyclists can look at your land as they ride a nearby trail, and a building would ruin that.
You don't believe that you're being 'forced' out of your private vehicle but then you notice that even though Libya produces only 2% of the world's oil your gasoline cost just jumped up 15% since Gaddafi started shouting. You also have noticed that there's talk about a 'Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax' in your town council that would charge you for long commutes. You moved there to buy a house but the market has crashed and you're not going anywhere for a while.
You, of course, were an avid fan of the Smart Train idea and voted for the 1/4 cent sales tax hike in perpetuity, but now the train is a distant hope since they underestimated costs, and the money went to repair the tracks (for freight) and big pensions for staff. All of those SMART Growth condos by the tracks are now going to hear freight train whistles and smell the fumes 6 feet away.
You're sick of being called an "Oil Addict" and can't understand why innovations for energy efficient vehicles have never been funded by your government. Until now, when you can pay $40,000 for a compact that gets 35 miles to the gallon...
You came home from work and noticed that your energy company had installed a SMART METER without asking you, and now you've heard that they can shut it off remotely, monitor your use, reduce your allotment, and generally mess with you any time.
You've gone from saying you'd never bother to learn computers to checking your email every half hour, and your kids never look up from their I-whatever when you talk to them. Their classrooms are so crammed with kids that even you think remote learning might be a good idea, and, hey, textbooks on-line should save money---they can update them, change them, change history with a click of the mouse---Great!
You just came back from a vacation in Mexico and noticed the retina recognition and fingerprint readers at every customs officer's station, and it made you nervous. Of course they're not using them on everyone yet, but how long will it be? You've also read that they have miniature drone spy hummingbirds that can fly 8 miles, in and out of windows, and record sound and video! Who? Your government. What else do they have? Do they know you're reading this?
You go to a neighborhood association meeting out of some sense of civic duty and see that they're electing officers to the association. You'd like to nominate your neighbor but you can't because the by-laws say that any candidate has to be okayed by the board first. You try to make a comment but you are boo'd by your 'neighbors' in bike helmets and spandex. It's clear that they have a candidate who will be elected and claim to speak for the entire neighborhood.
Call it Smart Growth. Call it Sustainable Development. Call it Form Based Zoning. Call it Capacity Building. Call it Consensus Building. Call it Green Building. Call it Wildlands. Call it Homelands. Call it Outcome Based Education. ETC. Hey, it's not "What is Agenda 21", it's "WHAT ISN'T AGENDA 21" It's not Republican, and it's not Democrat. It's not Libertarian, and it's not Independent. It's COMMUNITARIAN.
Satisfied? Are we making this up? Have you noticed? So? WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT? Listen, no one is holding a gun to your head; you're not losing your job if you speak out. Will you please go and talk to your neighbor, friend, co-worker, partner, coach, financial advisor, lawyer, clerk, you get the idea.... SPEAK UP. SPEAK OUT. STOP AGENDA 21 NOW.
Everyone is being impacted by it, but since your government uses different names for all of the programs (it's alphabet soup), you don't recognize that there is a connection when you hear, for instance:
Your 10-year old child won't be automatically going to the middle school in your neighborhood but has to apply for admission. S/he may end up across town where you'll never attend parent/teacher night, never become friends with other parents, and not volunteer in the classroom (and hear the lesson) because you can't make it home from your job in time.
Your business is being subjected to a Business Improvement Tax by your local government and you have to pay even though your customers now have to put money in the meters, pay huge parking tickets, and can go to the Mall with free parking.
You inherited a piece of land from your folks but now you find out that it's impossible to build anything on it because the County has an ordinance that won't allow you to install a septic system on your 40 acres. And the Biotic Resource Corridor that it's in won't allow development anyway. And besides you're in the 'viewshed' so bicyclists can look at your land as they ride a nearby trail, and a building would ruin that.
You don't believe that you're being 'forced' out of your private vehicle but then you notice that even though Libya produces only 2% of the world's oil your gasoline cost just jumped up 15% since Gaddafi started shouting. You also have noticed that there's talk about a 'Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax' in your town council that would charge you for long commutes. You moved there to buy a house but the market has crashed and you're not going anywhere for a while.
You, of course, were an avid fan of the Smart Train idea and voted for the 1/4 cent sales tax hike in perpetuity, but now the train is a distant hope since they underestimated costs, and the money went to repair the tracks (for freight) and big pensions for staff. All of those SMART Growth condos by the tracks are now going to hear freight train whistles and smell the fumes 6 feet away.
You're sick of being called an "Oil Addict" and can't understand why innovations for energy efficient vehicles have never been funded by your government. Until now, when you can pay $40,000 for a compact that gets 35 miles to the gallon...
You came home from work and noticed that your energy company had installed a SMART METER without asking you, and now you've heard that they can shut it off remotely, monitor your use, reduce your allotment, and generally mess with you any time.
You've gone from saying you'd never bother to learn computers to checking your email every half hour, and your kids never look up from their I-whatever when you talk to them. Their classrooms are so crammed with kids that even you think remote learning might be a good idea, and, hey, textbooks on-line should save money---they can update them, change them, change history with a click of the mouse---Great!
You just came back from a vacation in Mexico and noticed the retina recognition and fingerprint readers at every customs officer's station, and it made you nervous. Of course they're not using them on everyone yet, but how long will it be? You've also read that they have miniature drone spy hummingbirds that can fly 8 miles, in and out of windows, and record sound and video! Who? Your government. What else do they have? Do they know you're reading this?
You go to a neighborhood association meeting out of some sense of civic duty and see that they're electing officers to the association. You'd like to nominate your neighbor but you can't because the by-laws say that any candidate has to be okayed by the board first. You try to make a comment but you are boo'd by your 'neighbors' in bike helmets and spandex. It's clear that they have a candidate who will be elected and claim to speak for the entire neighborhood.
Call it Smart Growth. Call it Sustainable Development. Call it Form Based Zoning. Call it Capacity Building. Call it Consensus Building. Call it Green Building. Call it Wildlands. Call it Homelands. Call it Outcome Based Education. ETC. Hey, it's not "What is Agenda 21", it's "WHAT ISN'T AGENDA 21" It's not Republican, and it's not Democrat. It's not Libertarian, and it's not Independent. It's COMMUNITARIAN.
Satisfied? Are we making this up? Have you noticed? So? WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT? Listen, no one is holding a gun to your head; you're not losing your job if you speak out. Will you please go and talk to your neighbor, friend, co-worker, partner, coach, financial advisor, lawyer, clerk, you get the idea.... SPEAK UP. SPEAK OUT. STOP AGENDA 21 NOW.
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