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It’s Good To Be Home!

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

It has been nice to take a month off from Jefferson Review – to enjoy our daughter Nina’s high school graduation (with lots of honors and awards) and to take our family on a trip to Italy to trace our roots, see lots of interesting places, and connect with some ancient history.  I didn’t read a newspaper or write a patent application for two weeks, and it was nice to see that the world managed to go on just fine without me!  It is great to be home and to recognize the great advantages we have in the U.S. as compared with more socialist Europe, but we need to work to keep those advantages and even, with luck, to recover some that have already been lost.  I see several issues crying for some commentary, so here goes:

1.       Eminent Domain

The recent U.S. Supreme Court case on eminent domain should be of concern to everyone.  Basically, the court has decided that any government entity can take your property for any reason it wants, including for private development.  If someone wants to build a shopping mall or a parking lot where your house is, and if they have enough pull with your city council, then you can be forced to move out.  That is not how it is supposed to be in this country, where government is supposed to defend and protect private property, not take it.  The power of eminent domain is supposed to be limited to taking property for special government projects, such as highways.  For a long time, we have been on a slippery slope of eroding respect for individuals and their property, but this decision has converted that slope into a cliff.  Now, nobody’s home or property is safe.  I hope people wake up and take action before it is too late.  If we are going to push for a constitutional amendment that will be of real consequence, rather than some of the feel-good amendments currently being proposed, then we should push for an amendment that requires governments at all levels to respect private property.

2.       Big Bird Should Stand On His Own Two Drumsticks

I was pleased to see that there appeared to be a move afoot to reduce the amount that taxpayers are forced to pay to subsidize certain television stations and programming.  However, many legislators who know this forced subsidy is wrong appear to have lost their spine.  I applaud those who stood up for the taxpayers, including Anne Northup and Geoff Davis, and am disappointed in others, who claim to be for the taxpayers but who buckled under pressure from moochers who want their television programming at someone else’s expense.  If we really believe in free speech and the separation of church and state, then we should oppose the forced subsidy of televised speech.  We should no more be forced to subsidize the leftist evangelism of Bill Moyers than to subsidize Christian evangelists.  I would be happy for Bill Moyers to spout his propaganda all day long, but let him find sponsors to pay for his air time; don’t force the bill onto the taxpayers.  As for Big Bird, there are plenty of sponsors who already are paying for programs like Sesame Street, so the great outcry that such programming will not occur without forced subsidies is a farce.  The public television folks have been mooching off the taxpayers long enough – it’s time for them to leave the nest.

3.       Louisville Arena?

It appears that the push for a new arena in Louisville is still going strong.  That’s fine.  The big question is who is going to pay for it.  If an arena is as good for business as everyone claims, then the businesses that stand to benefit should be willing to support it.  Let the owners of the surrounding hotels, restaurants, and bars, and the law firms and accounting firms who will benefit from their business put their money where their mouths are.  Let them form a corporation to own and control the arena, and anyone else who wants to support the project can buy shares.  The corporation can sell the naming rights to the highest bidder and come up with other creative ways to make the arena profitable.  However, taxpayers who may never attend a single event in the arena should not be forced to subsidize this project, and elected officials should receive that message loud and clear.  That way, if the project makes economic sense, it will happen, and, if it doesn’t, it will not.

4.       The Dairy Queen Example

The other day, our daughter had some of her friends over, and we took them out to Dairy Queen for some dessert.  They began bickering about which type of dessert to get, and I couldn’t resist pointing out to them that the beauty of a free market was they could each get whatever they wanted.  Unlike a government project like government education that relies on coercion and one-size fits-all, they weren’t forced to act in lockstep and all get the same thing.  Each girl could get anything she wanted! 

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