
Reading one of my favorite websites yesterday, World Net Daily (wnd.com) I learned of the plight faced by rancher Ken Aderholt and his family in Harrold, Texas. It seems that the Aderholt family has continually worked the land since 1941, have a Texas deed to the property and has had no contact with the federal government about any boundary conflicts since they have owned the property until recently.
In 2014, Aderholt received a call from the Bureau of Land Management informing him that the feds were redefining boundaries along the river and that he had reason to be concerned. Since then he has been told that six hundred acres of his twelve hundred fifty acre spread will become federal property and he will have to vacate it. Even worse, that portion of his property is where the family home is located, so any such action is likely to leave the Aderholt's homeless.
Aderholt has further stated that while he understands that part of the property directly adjacent to the river bed is subject to government control due to fluctuating river flow of the meandering water source, the area in question is narrow. The Bureau of Land Management wants to expand that to a width of one half mile, much greater than river flow records show. Arrogant as always, they show no inclination to work with the Aderholts, using brute force instead to destroy another citizen's life and livelihood.
I don't know about you, folks, but this appears to be nothing but a land grab, an action reminiscent of what happened to the Bundy Ranch in Nevada not very long ago. The feds seem so intent upon seizing land that they will leave no action untried, no matter how unsavory that action might be. Aderholt says he and other ranchers in the area will fight the action and have asked for the State of Texas to get directly involved. Families and their long held property should not be subjected to the whims of bureaucrats and tyrants in Washington who only want more control.
And, folks, it could be much deeper than that. The feds already control about thirty percent of American land with the majority of it being in Western states. At the same time, Obama has worked to categorize more and more land as national monuments, thereby precluding use of significant prime real estate. And while I'm all for protecting our national treasures, to use this activity as a means of destroying what families have built for generations is a travesty that no government which truly works for the people it is supposed to serve serves would ever take such action.
Lastly, the kicker comes when you look at the Obama Administration's support of UN Agenda 21, a far reaching and control-seeking policy which has as one of its long term goals the end of property rights. The Supreme Court has already capitulated to some degree to this with it's extension of eminent domain approval in the Kelo decision and now the feds are just taking that action to a higher level through another attempted administrative land grab.
If they'll do this in Texas, they'll do it anywhere. After all, with the EPA attempting to claim that any land with water larger than a pothole should be subject to their rules and with the new HUD housing regulations dictating the demographic make-up of communities, where will it stop. Be very concerned and get your guard up. Let your elected officials know that we, the people who are supposed to be served by government, not controlled by it, will not sit silently by and watch our property be seized. If we don't stand for freedom when we face matters like this, freedom will be gone before you know it, to be replaced by a form of tyranny that will reduce us to serfdom. Stand strong, America, it is our country, not theirs to command.