(Via and H/T The John Birch Society)
Via Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk Column:
I am pleased to report that last week we received notice that the Texas Department of Transportation will recommend the I-69 Project be developed using existing highway facilities instead of the proposed massive new Trans Texas Corridor/NAFTA Superhighway. According to the Texas Transportation Commissioner, consideration is no longer being given to new corridors and other proposals for a new highway footprint for this project. A major looming threat to property rights and national sovereignty is removed with this encouraging announcement.
Public outcry was cited as the main reason for this decision. I was very impressed to learn that the TxDOT received nearly 28,000 public comments on this matter, and that some 12,000 Texans attended the 47 public hearings held earlier this year. They could not ignore this tsunami of strong public opinion against the proposed plans. I was especially proud of how informed my constituents became on the subject, and how eloquently and respectfully they spoke and conducted themselves, considering how upsetting the plans were for our communities in Texas .
This is a major victory for the people of Texas , and a reminder of what we can accomplish with civic involvement. The informed and active citizen truly is a force to be reckoned with, as we have seen with the defeat of this proposal. We must keep fighting the good fight, and remain ever diligent against the encroachments of big government. We must do this if we wish to maintain our traditional standard of living in this country. As tempting as it may be to simply live our lives with no regard to government, apathy will inevitably be punished by ever more government intrusion. That is what this fight was all about. We can win if we stick together.
However, now is not the time to rest on our laurels. The bittersweet aspect of this victory is that we had to fight at all. We took time away from family and friends, doing other things, to attend these meetings, inform others, write letters, post signs and submit our complaints, and we should not have had to. Government should let us be, if we are peaceful citizens, harming no one. In a perfect world, government could be trusted to act in the best interests of the people without overwhelming pressure of this kind. This is not a perfect world. Constant pressure is needed to keep government in check, and we succeeded this time. But this will not be the last time citizen efforts and involvement will be required. We still face many unreasonable encroachments of big government today, from confiscatory, economy-strangling taxation to creeping disregard of the right of habeas corpus and other Constitutional rights, to thousands of nuisance bureaucratic regulations interfering with our every day lives. We have drifted far from what the founding fathers envisioned for this nation. Last week was just one victory towards getting back on the right path. We must continue to hold politicians’ feet to the Constitutional fire. If I had to guess, they will probably try to implement the NAFTA Superhighway again sometime in the future.
It is a never-ending battle, but it must be fought, and can be won. I am proud to stand with my constituents in this fight, and in the other fights we have ahead of us.
The John Birch Society’s John F. McManus weighs in:
On July 31, 2007, the New York Times published a small article claiming that fears about construction of a massive new highway system connecting Mexico to Canada were "urban legend." The article even included a photo of the planned route that would, in effect, bisect Texas. The photo was a conceptual drawing of where the road would be created, an artist’s rendition put forth by the North American Super Corridor Coalition (NASCO). But even that wasn’t enough for the Times as its article pointed out that candidates for the GOP nomination were being peppered with questions about it while campaigning in faraway New Hampshire and Iowa. The GOP stalwarts claimed no knowledge of such a plan.
Having set the tone a response should employ for any such question, the Times had provided an easy way for anyone to scoff at such "rumors." Denials that any such plan ever existed actually continue to this day. But the Texas Department of Transportation has just announced that a project paralleling I-69 (legitimately considered by opponents to be part of the NAFTA Superhighway System) will be built along existing highway facilities, not through any area that would necessitate massive land-grabbing.
So the plan that never existed has been canceled. How one does that is something only a government is likely to accomplish. In effect, TexDOT said, "It never was, but now it isn’t." Amazing!
Texas Congressman Ron Paul noted that the project had been stopped cold by "nearly 28,000 public comments" sent to Texas officials, and attendance at 47 public hearings dealing with the proposed plan by "12,000 persons." He congratulated all for "how eloquently and respectfully they spoke and conducted themselves" while protesting a plan that would have cost many their livelihoods, homes, farms, and ranches. Many also feared a continuing erosion of national sovereignty, believing that the NAFTA Superhighway was intended to facilitate the creation of a North American Union entangling Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
Paul noted, "Constant pressure is needed to keep government in check, and we succeeded this time." But he added that "this will not be the last time citizen effort and involvement will be required." And he warned, "If I had to guess, they will probably try to implement the NAFTA Superhighway again sometime in the future."
James Russell Lowell issued a similar warning many years ago when he wrote: "Not yet, O Freedom! Close thy lids in slumber, for thine enemy never sleeps.
When people wake and realize that the United States Government works for the people, is paid by the people and serves at the pleasure of the people. Things get done, corrupt and Anti-American projects , such as this, are scrapped.
As Laura Ingraham would say, “Power to the people”.