#123:Second Town Meeting

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Kamiko Akiyama, the mayor who was not a mayor, the owner of Flint Island was over a hundred years old. She was well pleased with how her, now, decades old “experiment” in city management had turned out. Point of fact, the requirements of city management had decreased dramatically over the years. Her position was basically honorary, she had nothing, really, to do.

Until now.

“Ok folks, settle down and pay attention” Captain Parmalee addressed the crowd. “Ya’ll all know Kamiko Akiyama. She’s been here longer than I have. In fact she hired me. So you yahoos shut-up and listen to what she has to say or I’ll have to come down there and talk to you personal. You really, really don’t want me to do that.”

Everyone knew the Captain was speaking humorously. His bark was way worse than his bite. That’s just the way he was, with them. With outsiders he meant every word he said. This was only the second town meeting in living memory. They held it the same place they had the last time.

It had been a miserable day the last time, wet and rainy. Just as it was today. To get out of that nasty weather Captain Parmalee had directed his crew to construct a rilly, rilly BIG SSmoke cloud. It had covered the entire vacant field. It had been a fairly dense cloud too. The residents of the city had been inside the cloud. They had been dry and seated comfortably, they even had snacks. They had at their command technology indistinguishable from magic. Each and every one of them had a view of the proceedings as if they were face to face with the speaker, thanks to that technology.

That was last time, this was now. No more half measures. The entire Island was enclosed and enveloped by a cloud of SSmoke . All of the children and many of the residents had used the SSmoke to fly themselves to the meeting...like superman.

“Thank you Captain Parmalee” Kamiko told the crowd. She was spry for an old woman, in fact she didn’t look a day over sixty, another benefit of SSmoketm technology. No one seemed to realize that yet and she hadn’t advertised.

“I've known many of you since before Captain and Marc were hired to assist us. I think they have both done remarkably well don’t you?” she said

The crowd definitely agreed. They gave the the two Orcs a round of heart felt applause. The two brothers didn’t say anything but it was evident that they were touched.

“In all that time the Captain and his crew have taken care of business.” Kamiko continued “However, we are now faced with a problem that’s outside his authority to handle. It’s OUTSIDE. The State is going to condemn our land using eminent domain.”

Kamiko Akiyama: looked sad. “The Constitution of the United States, the Fourth Amendment says in part....

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,...”

The Fifth Amendment says, in part...

“....nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

“However...they don’t really mean it. Historically it has always been an established historical rule that sovereign governments have the power and authority to appropriate land within their own borders for whatever use or uses that they see fit. They just ignore that little part in the Declaration of Independence which says “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” They’ve invented something they call “implied consent” that means you consent to what ever they want to do whether you think that you do or not.”

“When push comes to shove the government will do what it damn well pleases. This particular governmental power is known as the power of “eminent domain.” In the United States, the power of eminent domain is held by 51 different sovereigns: the federal government and each of the fifty states. I suppose that if they were consistent then that same power would be held by municipalities as well, but I don’t think that is the case.”

“It would appear that they want our land. It would also appear that they could give a good god damn about the law. They will, and have, bent and twisted the law to suite themselves. “

“They have unilaterally abrogated the social contract.” she said.

The crowd was quite. That’s about what they had thought themselves, minus the legal references. The all thought that eminent domain was pretty much state sanctioned theft, much like civil forfeiture.

“Yes?” Kamiko recognized someone.

“If that’s the case Ma’am. What’s the point of government? Why not anarchy and mob rule? It seems like we’ve just traded one set of thieves for another?”

“One would think” Kamiko agreed “it certainly seems that way.”

“Yes?” she recognized someone else.

“That’s not really fair. “ that person said “ If it wasn’t for the government who would pay for the roads, the schools, and all the other publics services?”

The crowd was silent, except for subdued laughter.

Kamiko smiled “where do your children go to school?”

“Um...well that’s not really fair either.” the person said “ I homeschool them myself of course. They are MY children. I don’t trust anyone else to do the job right.”

“How often do you use the roads. “ Kamiko continued. “or any other so called service?”

“Well I don't. Just like today. I flew here. I use the new SSmoke Technology to do almost anything I want....er.... I think I see what you mean.” that person yielded the floor.

“Eminent domain is just one of their tactics” Kamiko said.

“Some dead white guy is supposed to have once said ‘Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” Kamiko said very quietly.

“You may have heard of him? His name was George Washington.” she said “The government has used force.”

It was silent for some time.

“I think it all boils down to ‘what do we do’?” Kamiko said to the crowd when it appeared that no one had anything more to say.

“Do we ‘fight” legally of course. “Kelso vs City of New London” was a case fairly similar to this.“ Kamiko told them.

“What happened there.” a person from the audience asked.

“Everyone died.” Kamiko told them. “ Oh I don’t mean physically. Metaphorically speaking. The lawyers got rich. The people whose land was to be foreclosed on spent a fortune in legal fees..then they lost. The corporation that had wanted the land in the first place...changed it’s mind. Where once stood a nice community, rather like ours, now all that remain are weeds and trash.”

The audience was silent.

But wait! Kamiko said dramatically, “There’s more! Why do they want our land?”

It was NOT lost on the crowd that she said “our” land. Everyone there knew that she held the deed. It was her land, not theirs. Kamiko apparently didn’t think so.

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The Next Episode will be
#124: Economic Refugees
The Previous Episode was
#122:Breakfast Planning…
the First episode was
#1 : Prologue
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