DEAR EDITOR:
Principles are usually fairly simple.
DEAR EDITOR:
Principles are usually fairly simple. Their application is very often highly complex. Let us take the principle described by the term “private property.”
Much ink has been spilled trying to define these two simple words, both individually and in combination. But most people recognize the principle soon after they leave the cradle. One either believes in the principle or one does not. Let me take that back. Everyone believes in the principle of “private property.” Some believe it applies to everyone and others believe, more selfishly, that it applies only to themselves. Take jolly old King Henry the VIII, for instance. You know, the once who had his wife Anne Boleyn beheaded. When Henry had beheaded his old friend and confidante, Sir Thomas More, he also booted the widow out of the family took all the other property for himself.
Whether “private property” takings are done by kings, as in the days of old, or by democratically elected legislatures (congress, state, city councils, RDA boards), as is done today, the results are much the same.
In the United States, a forceful taking of “private property,” regardless of compensation, is considered a very dangerous precedent and thus is constitutionally defined. Without such protection, people today, like Sir Thomas More’s widow, may literally find themselves out in the street. The distinction between allowing any government agency, king or council, to take “private property” for “public use” (as opposed to “private use”) was made by our learned and astute founding fathers. It was cemented in place in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Apparently the distinction has been lost on many of our local pundits who weepingly decry any opposition to “a little socialism.” It is to their credit that our Gilroy mayor, Tom Springer, and Councilman Bob Dillon publicly took a stand against the formation of a Redevelopment Agency for Gilroy. Their opposition was based on a sound principle – one that applies to everyone equally and not to a chosen few. All fair minded people owe them a hearty vote of thanks.
Jack B. Kazanjian, Gilroy
Submitted Tuesday, Nov. 5 to ed****@ga****.com
