Category: local leaders

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First Amendment rights general freedom local leaders

Annoyed by Anti-​Annoyance Law

I’m annoyed by a new law passed in the Michigan town of Brighton City.

According to the ordinance, police may fine anyone who is too annoying in public. Up to $500. The ordinance states: “It shall be unlawful for a person to engage in a course of conduct or repeatedly commit acts that alarm or seriously annoy another person and that serve no legitimate purpose.”

Obviously, many different things annoy many different people, most having little to do with the possible or actual commission of a crime.

If you and I are annoyed, think about how annoyed the folks are who actually live there. One resident, Charles Griffin, told ABC News that the new law is “the most ridiculous thing in the world.”

Area resident Chetly Zarko has written to the council asking them to repeal the law, arguing that it is “unconstitutionally vague … and impedes on free expression rights under the First Amendment.”

Council members say critics are blowing things out of proportion. They say people aren’t going to be ticketed for talking too loud or making complaints to public officials, but for things like persistent harassment of an ex-​girlfriend or the like.

But words mean what they say, don’t they? They don’t mean what they would have meant if only you had said what you meant.

In the spirit of being careful with words, let me revise my opening statement: I am more than merely annoyed.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
ballot access initiative, referendum, and recall local leaders

The Spirit of Initiative

Today is inauguration day for President Barack Obama. When I think of presidential inaugurations, I think of John F. Kennedy’s speech on another January 20, back in 1961. Kennedy told Americans to “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

In other words, government ought not be a spectator sport. Government is us. “We the People” must be engaged. And, around the country, people are engaging in all sorts of ways. Many are launching ballot initiatives. You could, too.

Initiatives allow voters a direct say on issues.

In Missouri, for example, Ron Calzone and Missourians for Property Rights are campaigning for two constitutional amendments to fully protect citizens from continuing eminent domain abuse.

Ron and the group worked their hearts out in 2008 to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures on two petitions. Unfortunately, both measures fell short in one of the six required congressional districts.

Would you have given up, saying you did your duty? Well, Calzone’s troops can be called “the minutemen” because they didn’t quit for a minute. They will not rest until governments are prevented from stealing our homes and businesses, at least in Missouri. The group has filed two new initiatives and will soon be gathering signatures for a 2010 vote.

The inaugural will be televised. I’m told the revolution will not be.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
local leaders

Farewell, Freedom’s Champions

As we enter a new year, I’d like to remember all the wonderful souls who have passed from this world in 2008.

In politics, it’s easy to look on the bleak side. Yet, I’m hopeful for our republic, believing that “yes, we can” protect freedom.

One reason? The example set by several men who died this year, men who believed in doing what they thought was right, who stood up for justice and truth. Men I respect.

Marshall Fritz, who founded Advocates for Self-​Government, was a man of boundless energy and good cheer.

William F. Buckley, who I had the privilege of meeting in 1988 when Ron Paul ran for President on the Libertarian Party ticket and I got to accompany him to tape Buckley’s Firing Line program.

Allan Schmid passed away just weeks ago. Folks outside of Michigan may not know the name, but Al was one of the first proponents of term limits. He also pushed for tax limitation. He was a good and great man. Al’s son, Greg Schmid, continues his legacy of actively defending liberty.

Paul Weyrich, a conservative exemplar, died just before Christmas. Paul was very kind to me when I came to Washington in 1991. He provided sage advice to the term limits movement, and was one of the first conservatives to realize the importance of the voter initiative process. Paul never traded principle for political expedience.

Thank you, kind gentlemen, for the examples you set.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall local leaders

The John Lilburne Award

John Lilburne and Eric Ehst could never meet: They belong to different eras. But they have something in common.

Back in the 1600s, John Lilburne worked as a pamphleteer and champion of individual or “freeborn” rights. He pioneered the use of petitioning for redress against government power and abuse.

Lilburne was a term limits guy, too, arguing that members of parliament should not be able to serve for longer than a year at a time. Unfortunately, he spent far too much time in jail; his support for individual rights bugged both the Crown and then Cromwell. Lilburne’s trials sparked the fire that led to our own Fifth Amendment.

The Citizens in Charge Foundation, a group I work with, has just launched The John Lilburne Award. This monthly honor will go to a citizen working to protect and expand our petition rights.

Eric Ehst is the award’s first winner, for November 2008.

Ehst, executive director of the Clean Elections Institute, formed a coalition that helped defeat Arizona’s Proposition 105. This measure would have severely hampered Arizona’s initiative process by requiring a virtually impossible majority of all registered voters — not just those voting — to pass any initiative that would raise a tax or fee or that mandated any spending at all, even a postage stamp.

Long ago, John Lilburne struggled to establish the peoples’ right to petition their government. This year in Arizona, Eric Ehst defended that same right.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets general freedom local leaders

Capitalism vs. Caste

An “Untouchable” in India’s caste system has changed his mind.

Chandra Bhan Prasad, an Indian writer and activist, was once the worst kind of socialist. According to a profile in the New York Times, he had been the kind of Maoist revolutionary who “carried a pistol and recruited his people to kill their upper-​caste landlords.”

Now Prasad says the best way to lift low-​caste members of society out of poverty is to increase economic freedom, let capitalism flourish. He accuses hardcore leftists of “hatred for those who are happy.”

Prasad is conducting a survey of India’s untouchables to learn about the impact of the economic liberalization that has been underway in India since the early ’90s. His survey finds that they are less likely to be confined to the traditional jobs of their caste, like skinning animals. And that they enjoy more social privileges than they once did.

The Times reporter advises that the results of greater economic freedom are uneven, that many untouchables are still mired in poverty while members of the upper caste still possess great advantage. Not very surprising, eh? You can’t expunge decades and centuries of bad policy and entrenched prejudice with a snap of the fingers.

On the other hand, if you want to bring millions out of grinding poverty, the abundant wealth created by capitalism sure comes in handy. Socialism will keep them poor just fine.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
local leaders term limits

New Yorkers Won’t Take It Any More

Mayor Michael Bloomberg thought it would be easy to unravel citizen initiative rights in New York City.

He wants to stand for a third term, when New Yorkers have twice voted in support of a referendum limiting the mayor and city council members to two terms. Bloomberg’s second term ends November 2009.

Solution? Exploit a loophole that lets the city council revise the term limits law unilaterally. Council members had mumbled about doing this before, but Bloomberg always said he would veto any such attempt. We must, he said, respect the decision of the voters.

Once the mayor changed his mind, his task was simple. Just persuade a willing council to lengthen terms from two to three. Which they did. Problem solved.

Except … the uproar greeting Bloomberg’s betrayal of the voters has become enormous. And continues. Many voters showed up at the signing ceremony to berate him in person. So he had to squirm for a couple hours before scribbling his soiled John Hancock. There’s also a lawsuit under way to try to undo this undoing of lawful democracy.

And now a Brooklyn resident, Andre Calvert, has set up a Facebook page dedicated to the goal of defeating Bloomberg and the 29 city council members who voted to undermine the voters. Live in New York? Check it out. Maybe even if you don’t. The name of the profile is King Bloomberg III.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.