Fighting Agenda 21 with Property Rights Litigation

Stop Agenda 21 Movement Gains Strength with Important New Allies - Report from Tom DeWeese

This past Saturday (5th), I was invited to take part in an important event in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. It was important for two reasons.

First, I was invited to attend by renowned attorney Fred Kelly Grant. Fred is the man who is teaching property rights activists and local elected officials across the nation the concept of “Coordination.” This is a little known process that forces federal (and state) agencies to come to the table with local officials as the agencies attempt to impose federal regulations that will affect local communities.  In the past, these powerful agencies simply ran over and ignored local officials who thought they could only cooperate with such forces. That is no longer the case. The fact is, these local officials have the right and the power to be equal partners in deciding the implementation (and sometimes the fate) of these programs. This is an incredible power that has resulted in stopping some very damaging programs from being implemented. Fred Kelly Grant is the man who discovered this invaluable loophole.

Case in point was the stopping of the Trans Texas Corridor that would have cut several counties in half, literally destroying thousands of acres of private property, and prohibiting police, fire, ambulance and school buses from getting from one side of the corridor to the other. Fred, working with the Texas-based American Stewards for Liberty, taught the Coordination process to local officials from three counties located directly in the path of the Trans Texas Corridor. The Texas Department of Transportation (TDOT) was obligated to sit down at the table with these officials. Fred was there to help. Eventually the three counties refused to allow the Corridor to travel through their territory. The Department of Transportation tried to reroute the Corridor through other counties. Fred found five more counties to join the Coordination process and blocked TDOT again. Eventually, in frustration, TDOT announced it couldn’t build the Trans Texas Corridor. All because of Fred Kelly Grant’s insight and expertise.

In Rhinelander, this past weekend, Fred was again teaching an assortment of  local elected officials, including state representatives, state senators and county commissioners from Wisconsin and Michigan the coordination process in an attempt to block EPA regulations that would result in the destruction of the timber industry in the northern part of those states. In fact, Fred, along with the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association, was conducting a public hearing on the issue. For two solid days, expert witnesses, timber professionals, property owners, business owners, affected residents and other recognized experts from around the nation gave their testimonies. That information will be put into a complete report presented to the EPA with the official call for a Coordination process, which the EPA won’t be able to ignore.

 Why was this important to the Stop Agenda 21 movement, and why was I there? As Fred tells it, like many in the property rights movement, for years he had decided to ignore the Agenda 21 connection to the policies he was fighting. As did many, he thought people like Henry Lamb, Mike Coffman and I were wasting our time. As Fred told me, “I have said, and others have said, avoid talking about Agenda 21 because people’s eyes glaze over and they think you’re a conspiratorial nut.” However, the more he worked on policy the more obvious were the ties to Agenda 21. So, as he invited me to attend and give testimony to the hearing in Rhinelander, he said, “Well, I think it is time to unglazed the eyes.”

So Fred Kelly Grant, the giant of Coordination, invited me, Tom DeWeese, to give the final testimony to his Coordination hearing in Rhinelander. He encouraged me to fire both barrels about Agenda 21 so the panel would fully understand how the dots are connected from the EPA’s policy directly to Agenda 21.

This is a significant event because it is a permanent merging of two very vital and growing movements into one powerful force. Next, will be a similar effort in Maryland, joining forces with Carroll County Commissioner Richard Rothschild (the man who directed the first in the nation effort to eject ICLEI from his county government). Commissioner Rothschild, with Fred Kelly Grant’s assistance, is successfully organizing opposition to Maryland state government’s efforts to enforce more Agenda 21-inspired land grabs. I will be there too, teaching more officials of the Agenda 21 connection.

 Finally, our movement is growing into an effective fighting force, working side by side with elected officials to stop Agenda 21 at its roots – inside the halls of government.

For more on Coordination contact American Stewards for Liberty at www.AmericanStewards.us. I have also included a full Coordination manual by American Stewards in the American Policy Center’s “Stop Agenda 21 Action Kit.” Available at on our web site (http://store.americanpolicy.org/products/stop-agenda-21-action-kit) .

(http://americanpolicy.org/2013/10/08/testimony-by-tom-deweese/)

Source: American Policy Institute, Tom DeWeese, americanpolicy.org