Williamson County TN opposes Agenda 21

The Williamson County GOP Executive Committee recently adopted a Resolution in Opposition to Agenda 21. I would also encourage you to review my remarks, below, for more information on how Agenda 21 is restricting our individual liberties and your Constitutional rights, right here in Williamson County. The author of this article is Kevin Kookogey, Chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party.

Agenda 21 is the nebulous name given to that comprehensive plan alleged to improve the world community in the 21st Century. It was launched in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But Agenda 21 is, in fact, an insidious strategy of environmental totalitarianism and social engineering designed to achieve “one world order” under the authority of an unelected global bureaucracy.

Among other things, Agenda 21 is hostile to America’s founding and animating principles, including national sovereignty, private property rights, private development, single family dwellings, free markets, and free use and development of resources. The proponents of Agenda 21 advocate for redistribution of wealth, and their doctrine is, quite simply, nothing more than a restatement of communism.

The proponents of Agenda 21 are intent on forcing you into crowded communities and limiting your parking spaces in order to achieve their “green dreams” of eliminating automobiles in favor of walking or riding your bikes – although I imagine they make exception if we agree to drive those little electric toys that nobody wants. Meanwhile, these unelected elites jet around to world conferences deciding what is best for you and me.

To achieve these dreams, the United Nations seeks to impose global taxes on currency transfers, fossil energy production, commercial use of oceans, and international airfares.

Perhaps you have never heard of Agenda 21. But I would bet you are familiar with phrases like “sustainable development,” “smart growth;” “regionalism,” “comprehensive planning,” and allocation of so-called “green spaces.” Terms like these were selected by the United Nations to overcome objections by those of us who argue in defense of liberty and national sovereignty. The Preamble and Chapter 28 of the Agenda 21 Plan expressly recommends obscuring the true intentions of Agenda 21 by use of the term “smart growth” and other innocuous sounding phrases.

The good news is that conservatives and liberty-minded activists are now alert to Agenda 21 and its implications. Our legislators in Tennessee are considering bills to stem the tide of Agenda 21, and even the Republican National Committee recently adopted a Resolution in opposition to Agenda 21. The Williamson County Republican Party and many other county Republican parties in Tennessee have adopted similar Resolutions.

The bad news, however, is that we are years behind. Agenda 21 has already made significant headway in cities, counties, and local communities throughout America. More than 1,100 cities, towns, and counties are members of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (the ICLEI, as it is better known), an international association of local governments as well as national and regional local government organizations that have made a commitment to “sustainable development.” There’s that word again!

The ICLEI coordinates local government representation in the United Nations, in contravention of the United States Constitution and your individual liberties.

Let me give you just a few examples of how Agenda 21 is weaving its way into your lives right here in Middle Tennessee. In 2010, Columbia, Tennessee, was selected as one of 62 cities to participate in the “Community Challenge Planning Grant” program. This program is a collaborative effort of three dubious federal agencies: - HUD, DOT, and the EPA – and it presumes that cities can develop in more “sustainable” ways by improving “livability” of their most troubled areas. Through a “Regional Planning Grant,” Columbia received $250,000 to prepare a new highway corridor which would become a “blueprint” for “sprawl repair” for the entire city.

You see where this is going. Natural growth, or what they call "sprawl" is suddenly deemed immoral, whereas living closer together is - according to the police State - morally superior. Yet, by accepting funding from the federal government, the city of Columbia has naively submitted itself and its citizens to Agenda 21.

The City of Franklin provides another example, having recently paid the ICLEI for software to evaluate your water use. Franklin also employs a “Sustainability Grants Coordinator,” and maintains a “Sustainability Mission Statement.”

More alarming is Cumberland Region Tomorrow, or CRT, a 10-county Middle Tennessee initiative working under the purposefully ambiguous phrase of “collaborative action for quality growth.” Among the objectives of the CRT is a high-speed-rapid-transit to connect Belle Meade to East Nashville, hardly a priority at any time, let alone in today’s economy. Funding, of course, would be accomplished through a “regional tax,” this on top of what we already pay in city and county taxes.

But perhaps most disconcerting in all of this is how Agenda 21 is targeting the rising generation. You know how important that is to me. Leadership Middle Tennessee recently hosted a Youth Summit at Belmont University in order to introduce and promote “Regionalism” to our high school youth. The website announcing the event boasted that these students needed to be aware of so-called “regional issues,” …like healthcare, tourism, education, workforce, economic development and transportation…all code words of the Progressive movement, ladies and gentlemen, intended to seduce you into believing that local communities are not capable of addressing local issues without the help of Big Brother.

What is "regionalism" today will be "nationalism" tomorrow. Following that, we will be subject to an unelected global authority with no say in how we live our lives. These folks intend to induce you into a gradual surrender of your liberties in favor of a dominant, authoritative State.

Please tell members of Congress, as well as your state and, especially, your local elected officials that you are aware of Agenda 21, and that we will be ever vigilant in opposition to all of its entanglements. Remind your representatives that they are our agents, and that we are the principals. As such, we have only delegated – not surrendered – our rights, and that we expect them to protect and defend our sovereignty, in this area as in others.
Speaking for freedom, I am

Kevin Kookogey
Chairman