I hope you all enjoyed the lesson on eminent domain. I think you all learned quite a bit, and hopefully you've already gone home and shared with your families what you've learned about this important issue. I hope that understand that anyone can be affected by this government "tool." Now I want you to sound off – I want to know what you think. Here's a little something to get you started:
"This is America. This is a country with free enterprise. You have all the rights to own your property, your own home, your own business. You have the right to build your American dream."
"The use of eminent domain is a delicate tool, but it is a tool and it helps keep a community clean; it helps keep a community vibrant. It's a good tool and, definitely, I don't think it should be taken away."
These are quotes by two of the people interviewed in the film Unintended Consequences: Eminent Domain. Use them to get your thoughts rolling. Does eminent domain have a role to play in our communities? What should government do to protect private property rights? What can we do as citizens to ensure that these rights are protected? I don't expect you to answer the questions directly (but you may as part of your thought process). These questions are intended to help you think about the issue.
This will be an open forum, which means your comments should post immediately. Do not copy the thoughts of those that post before you, but you can certainly work off of them. That means that you can comment on a comment – you can disagree, agree, or just comment on the thoughts of someone else – but give me your ideas.
Here are few links:
An interesting story from CBS News
http://www.reason.org/eminentdomain/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain
Your comments must be posted by the of Sunday, March 15.
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16 comments:
I think the government should stop eminent domain, but if you think about it they are the ones doing it. They take away our land to build useless things that we already have and take it because they can. It would be different if people weren't paying there bills and they can't afford not to have the money, but if your taking it just to take give them a warning that would be fair for them. Everyone deserves a right to their property. The only thing I can think of to fight eminent domain is to pettition and never stop till you get what your after and if it doesn't work keep trying. Eventually they will understand your reasoning and hopefully reduce the amount of property taken.
I kind of disagree with Sydney that they take our land just to build useless things because they usually take our land to build more roads and highways to help us. But the one problem with that is that they take homes away from people. I'm not really sure if the people become "homeless" but for sure they won't have a home and they might not have enough money to support themselves with another home. But I have heard of the issue private property. As in the right to own your house or somethign. I also heard of the 5th amendament thing too like it says:"...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Well, i think that it is kind of okay because it is alright to take land for a good public use like schools or important highways. But it is not okay to take land and use it to make a mall or another stupid use just to bring more taxes. Anyway the government only will use most of it for the war.Probably because pres. Bush messed every thing up to go to war and explode the entire economy. But if you take land from people, you should pay them more to cover for the future that they messed up. Also Crystal, they also pay them money to cover for them so dont forget that.
Also I wish you all a great day!!!!!
And also i am 13 now yay!!!!!! Finnaly!!!!! haha
OMG im from E period and im the 4th commenter! KEWL!
I believe there are ups and downs in this Eminent Domain issue. It's good for the natoin because with the new land and taxes the government takes in, the better roads and healthy enviroments we have around us.
It's also a bad thing to do because to earn land, government must find a place or take away a place. Taking away a little shop or something is probably not a happy situation, but to take away someone's home, thats is seriously another issue. People worked to keep their home and life alive. They paid for these homes and children grow up in these homes. To take away such property, I honestly think it's insane. It's THEIR property, government should not be able to take human properties just to fix roads!!!
Other than that, Eminent Domain can stay, IF taking away human property stays out of it.
I disagree with Spencer because its not right to take something that doesn't belong to you. How would you like it if someone came up to your front door and said they were going to take your house and replace it with a school or something then where you used to live is a shopping mall. I think Joannaz is right because some good things can come out of eminent domain if they use it to help everyone but that isn't what they use it for all the time. I also disagree with Joannaz because taking anything that doesn't belong to you is wrong taking away a shop or house is just as bad taking away a cardboard box because it doesn't belong to you.
People are entitled to their rights and the 5th amendment is supposed to prevent eminent domain, then basically isn't the government breaking the law?
Eminent domain is just a plot, man. The "MAN" uses it to steal our liberty and our values. If the government continues this policy the country will be filled people who work hard only to start over the next day, and big companies controlling industrial monopolies of the economy. This is an exact opposite of what Jefferson layed out when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. And Crystal I bet most of the things the government uses our land for is just improving the power of companies, so in this case I agree with Sydney in this case. And Spencer you're just being an idiot, you are among the many pawns of the government, the government that plays us like a guitar.
Charlie is right we need to be able to work hard without fear of having to start over again the next day. The government doesn't think that we could take this to court and win otherwise they would stop and let people live their lives. Like the video said they went after a 100 year old lady and kicked her out of her home. that isn't right and people should take a stand and for what they believe in. If that isn't what is supposed to happen then why do we have freedom of speech. We need to get this under control now and never let it get out of hand. People have have experianced eminent domain need to take a stand and make sure the government knows they will not let go of this till it is no longer happening.
I think eminent Domain is a bad thing to do. People are what makes this country run and they have earned the land that they own. The goverment has no right to take that from them even if it helps more people. Everyone has the right to live unafraid of loosing their property so that the goverment can put in a car shop the people are more important if they loose their home people might revolt agianst the goverment.
Michael is right we shouldn't have to worry about people taking our land, because we own it and we worked hard for it. Everyone should have something to call their own and your house should be it. The government should not be able to take away our land. If Thomas Jefferson was still alive he would not be happy with this because in the Constitution he said this was not to be done.
i absolutely think eminent domain shouldn't even exist! If the goverment wants to build a mall or something they can go and find a peice of land thats for sale and use that. They are ruining peoples homes and lifelong buisnesses. Life may not be fair but this is just cruel. The goverment should aat least confront the people and see if they're willing to sell their property or not. If not they need to get out and saty out!!! I would rather have a public building built out in the middle of the desert or i the Pacific ocean rather than disturb other peoples lives.
sorry for the typos I'm typing on a minature computer(:
In my opinion, eminent domain is a 50-50 split. Yes it's bad because innocent people's houses are being taken away, but in the end it's for a better future. I do feel however, that property shouldn't be taken away for "silly" reasons, such as the Rod's Diner case. Taking someone's property to extend a parking lot doesn't make much sense.
Eminent domain effects our communities in various ways. For one, it takes property from someone even if they don't agree to it. However, like I mentioned, it's purpose is to help the community prosper.
Government should at least really take time to understand the situation. For example, if McDonalds wanted to open up a resturant near the beach, where some houses were currently located, government should review the case. In the end, they should realise that McDonalds isn't a healthy option and that it's not fair to take away those people's land.
We citizens can do many things to make sure our rights are protected. If we do decide to protest, we should have all of the facts straight and have a well organized argument that is strong and understandable.
Eminent domain is used for the wrong reason. If the case is to actually improve society, then it's a different story. However, we should all be willing to compromise and listen with each other.
100 years old Sydney?
For once, I actually agree with Taylor. Why have these public buildings built on people's property?
I agree with a lot of what your saying. I mean why should they take your land for "public use" when not everything they build is public use. Also if their going to take away your land you should have a warning so you can maybe find other living arrangements. But really i think they should stop eminent domain all together if they want more land then go tear down the fancy new buildings that are being built. I mean come on people all of these fancy buildings are being built instead make that public use. or tear them down and build more homeless shelters. But my real opinion is that eminent domain shouldn't be involved in our society i think we should take it out of our society for the other generations to come along so they don't have to go through the pain of losing their land over and over again.
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