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Category Better Life
Are You Fennel?
Gardening season is upon us. As the ground thaws, gardeners across Maine are thumbing through catalogues and beginning to frequent the local hardware store seed and garden tool displays as they envision the future-growing season. Many gardeners, including this columnist, enjoy introducing a new variety of vegetable or herb to our garden each year, gauging its success in the fall harvest and watching its performance during the growing season. Many of us in Maine have also learned the value of companion planting to help combat disease and pests. The combination of flowers, herbs and vegetables together in growing beds or a tradition garden structure often creates, in time, a beautiful array of color that paints a soothing picture for the gardener to enjoy.
Perhaps it is the poet and musician in me that often sees comparisons to the human condition in the plants that I tend. I find that certain qualities and emotions can be easily typified in the variety of God’s creation. It is in His creation that so many lessons can be learned, if we are willing to look.
Take sunflowers for instance. I call them the “children” of a garden. They burst with vibrant color and energy. Anyone that enters a garden where they are present is immediately captivated by their presence. Sunflowers are visually demanding. Your eyes are quickly drawn to them. I am surprised at how the first response I receive from those who visit my gardens is without exception, “Oh, look at those sunflowers”, despite how few I may plant. Everything about them shouts, “Look at me, I’m here, I want all your attention right here and right now!” Just like children.
Green beans are the engine of a garden, the young adults. They hold the promise of a future harvest. They are the workers. They are compatible with just about anything in a garden and very easy to work with. They are almost unstoppable. But if their fruits are not utilized they stop producing. Hmmm, think about that.
In a garden, flowers and herbs provide a unique service besides their beauty. They combine their scents to protect the vegetables from devouring pests. It reminds me of the wisdom of the older generations passed down to the younger to protect them from the many pitfalls that life presents. Scattering members of the onion family and various beneficial flowers throughout your vegetables is great way to chase away bugs and stop disease. The wisdom of our fathers should never be ignored, both the bitter and sweet. Experience, in all its forms, is for our benefit.
There is one herb that is a problem all its own. Fennel is a very striking in its looks. It has its own unique taste that makes it great for certain dishes. The problem with fennel is that it doesn’t get along with anything in the garden. You can’t grow this alongside any other plant. Why? Because it is too demanding. It takes so many nutrients from the soil that other plants cannot survive and produce well beside fennel.
In this Easter season, we are braced by the example of our Savior who was willing to give of himself so we could live and be free. We see today big government stubbornly doubling down on bad policy just to satisfy its own agenda. We see opponents of this abandoning the moorings of civility at times to achieve their ends. Jesus Christ was the ultimate in a revolutionary. He wasn’t quiet and meek, as some portray. He even called the political establishment of the day hypocrites and snakes, amongst other things. But in the midst of that revolution he was willing to give his all for his fellow man. We all want change for the better. Have we counted the cost? Do we truly want those around us to grow better or do we demand all the life be given to us? What is your function in the garden of life?
Adults
Most of the time these columns are spent defending the tenets of Conservatism and those that espouse them. In this piece, this columnist must take some exception with the behavior of a few within my own Conservative ranks. Their actions have moved beyond the necessary confines of decency and common sense.
I refer to a new popular program called “The Five”. It consists of five political pundits who sit around a table and debate, in sometimes colorful fashion, the various issues of the day. While I generally find the program entertaining and informative, today there was a segment that gave pause and then disappointment to this viewer.
The topic, quite frankly, on the surface seemed unworthy of discussion and, really, none of their business. They discussed of basketball game in San Antonio between two high schools; one with a majority of Caucasians, one with a majority of Latinos. The Caucasian school won the game, whereupon, the winning school’s student body began chanting, “U.S.A, U.S.A.”! In the aftermath of this, the leadership of the winning high school issued an apology to their opponents’ school for the behavior of their student body.
To my surprise, the majority of the co-hosts on the show took umbrage with the issued apology as if the school was apologizing for the school’s patriotism…really? Juan Williams, a liberal whom I generally as a rule disagree with, was the first to show some sanity by explaining that this was not an international game. This was no triumph of the United States over some visiting foreign team. This was simply two Texas high schools competing in basketball. There was no need for chanting “U.S.A.” at their opponent.
As the other commentators converged on Mr. Williams, I despaired that my fellow conservatives were arguing out of blind passion and that none would advocate for common sense. Thankfully, Dana Perino spoke up with fairness and clear-headedness that should be the banner of all conservatives and agreed with Juan Williams. This issue is not that difficult.
Some children misbehaved at a basketball game. They allowed the tensions of the immigration issues of our day filter into their competitive spirit. There is no international border that separates the two schools, but there is the color of their skin and origin of their race. Why didn’t they chant the name of their high school, their fight song or their mascot? The adults present used this as a teaching opportunity. They showed there is a correct way to hail the symbols of your nation and it is not to diminish the validity of your fellow Americans. The leadership of these schools behaved like adults and handled the matter effectively and rightly. They are to be commended.
Sometimes, unfortunately, there are times when we as combatants in these ideological wars get so engrossed in staking our ground, we lose focus on truth. We rail against a wrong whether it’s there or not. It’s what we call here in Maine “right of reason”. For this matter, the school leaders of San Antonio, Juan Williams and Dana Perino behaved as adults. Eric Bolling, Andrea Tantaros and Kimberly Guilfoyle, in this instance, did not.
A great piece by Roger Ek
As stated before, Roger is fantastic writer who has immeasurable knowledge of the battle for our basic rights to own property in the State of Maine. This is his latest piece which will be published in my newspaper column in two parts starting next week. Warning!!! Not for the faint of heart!!!
The Devil is in the Details
The Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee met last Thursday, February 23 to mark up LD 1798, the bill which would make LURC bigger stronger and meaner. The bill as written would enshrine LURC and the hated CLUP in place forever.
Remember that the original bill was to abolish LURC. The appointed commission of twelve, with the DEP commissioner as chairman, came back with a recommendation that LURC retain its power until September of 2015. The Ag and Forestry Committee sent the bill upstairs to be engrossed which is supposed to mean it gets adjusted to prevent conflicts with other laws already on the books.
At present, Maine’s governor nominates people to serve as LURC commissioners. Under the new bill, the governor would have the authority to appoint only three of the new nine commissioners. The other members could only be appointed by county officials. It is entirely possible that none of the nine new LURC commissioners would be elected. That is intentional. The committee cut the governor off at the knees and approved an amendment that would allow the governor to appoint only one of the new nine commissioners. That amendment passed unanimously!
LURC would have increased power to zone regional areas. They have always wanted to control nearby areas. LURC calls towns that abut LURC territory “fringe towns”. If passed, LURC would have control over their zoning. What? Your town has no zoning now? Here it comes. Many towns in Maine have no zoning except for DEP shoreline zoning and they do just fine. Our freedom is being taken away. LURC wants the entire state to have regional planning like the system they imposed on Rangeley. Do you have a nice lake in your town? Here comes regional planning.
The commission bill has changed significantly. THE DEP has its fingers in the pie now and it isn’t just a finger in the pie. They are into it up to their elbows because the chairman of the commission was the chairman of the DEP. This has Wildlands Project written all over it. The 2015 date, which would have allowed some slight authority to be granted to the counties, has now gone out to five years from the date of enactment. LURC would require a huge new bureaucracy to even allow a county to seek its independence from LURC. There is the Devil.
Remember that many towns today have no zoning, don’t need zoning and don’t want zoning. Counties should have that same freedom. LURC does not want that to happen. At present, LURC zones towns in the LURC territories. A couple of decades ago the Town of Prentiss de-organized. LURC took over. A retired couple wanted to place a trailer like you see at county fairs at their home and sell hot dogs, hamburgers, chili, coffee and sodas. LURC said they couldn’t run that little business. Why not? The retired couple’s home was not in a commercial zone. Oh? Just where is the commercial zone in Prentiss? LURC replied, “There isn’t one and there isn’t going to be one.”
What if a county actually had a majority of commissioners who valued freedom and wanted their liberty back? You know, the liberty to grant a building permit in a particular place. Here is where the DEP has reared its ugly head. In order to regain the freedom the counties lost on September 23, 1971, they must come and beg. To add insult to injury, the county will have to propose a detailed zoning plan that is more restrictive than the one LURC already has in place. Yes, more restrictive! It cannot ever be less restrictive than the burden citizens bear at the present time. If the county is not more restrictive the application will be rejected. None of this is speculation. It’s all in the bill.
Suppose a county still wants to exercise a tiny bit of authority as a gesture toward the freedom they had before September 23, 1971, the day economic opportunity died in Northern Maine. The county, at its own expense, will have to hire a firm or firms to map the entire county and define all zones proposed. These will not be general areas as LURC acts by whims. The county areas will be required by the DEP to be specific lines on the ground like the lines defining zones for hunting. If the DEP doesn’t like the final product the final product can simply be rejected. The financial cost to a county would be huge. The county would need a comprehensive land use plan, standards for determining the above boundaries, the maps and “other proposed regulations or standards”. It is all a further loss of freedom because it would be illegal to have standards with more freedom than citizens have today. There are the details.
It may be hard to believe. A couple of centuries ago we fought a revolution over what was called “The Intolerable Acts”. Great Britain had passed what they called the “Townshend Acts” named for their author, but here in the colonies they were indeed intolerable. LURC and the DEP have immense power today. LD-1798 would give them far more power and the amendments to give them even more power continue to pile up. I reported the results of the February 23 mark-up session to a few people in Northern Maine. One citizen was visibly angry. It is necessary to paraphrase the language that is unprintable in these pages, but this may suffice: “Do these flippin’ people have any flippin’ idea who they are flippin’ with?” Those are the sentiments of the citizenry in Northern Maine.
LURC and the DEP have an agenda. Their co-conspirators have an agenda. The agenda has a number. It is the number of the century we find ourselves in and the agenda is a trip into darkness. The Devil is indeed in the details. Over the years the co-conspirators have told us all about their agenda, but our citizens were asleep as they lost their freedom piece by piece. It is very important to understand the motivations of the rogue elements in Maine’s own LURC and DEP. They are motivated by the writings of the leaders of their movement.
“We reject the idea of private property.”
Peter Berle, President of the National Audobon Society
“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
Maurice Strong, Head of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro
“‘Protecting the Environment’ is a ruse. The goal is the political and economic subjugation of most men by the few, under the guise of preserving nature.”
J. H. Robbins
“Christianity is our foe. If animal rights is to succeed, we must destroy the Judeo-Christian Religious tradition.”
Peter Singer, the “Father of Animal Rights”
“The collective needs of non-human species must take precedence over the needs and desires of humans.”
Dr. Reed F. Noss, The Wildlands Project
“Cannibalism is a radical but realistic solution to the problem of overpopulation.”
Lyall Watson, The Financial Times, 15 July 1995
“If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.”
Prince Phillip, World Wildlife Fund
“Human beings, as a species, have no more value than slugs.”
John Davis, editor of Earth First! Journal
Our only hope is that we have enough clear thinkers in both parties to defeat LD 1798. When LURC was created four decades ago it passed by one vote. There is no greater example in Maine to the power of a single vote.
Roger Ek
Lee, Maine
The Maine Conservative Voice 