Sidewalk Stupidity

Punishing taxpayers who can't (or won't) submit to involuntary servitude is one of the hallmarks of a truly unenlightened and intellectually inferior body of governing officials.

The trouble with the sidewalk ordinance is that it has nothing to do with the city's legal power to levy taxes, fees, and fines. It has nothing to do with the fair exchange of property taxes and services. It has to do, instead, only with the City Council's unmitigated, blinding revenue hunger. Of course, I certainly can't fault them for wanting to keep revenues up to some level that will pay for all the pensions and fat paychecks they're committed to paying.

But cleaning snow off of public ways has always been one of the services that the city has paid for with tax revenue. The city used to clear off snow from public sidewalks, too, but now the City Council wants us to do it for them, under penalty of law. WTF? Haven't they ever read the US Constitution?

Haven't they ever read the thirteenth amendment? What do they think involuntary servitude means? Putting people under threat of punitive action for refusing to provide a service against their will is what this amendment to the Constitution is all about.

But when you have a local governing body that knows the legal cost of defending against and challenging this unconstitutional ordinance will be far in excess of the alternative (paying the fine), then they know they can get away with it. And getting away with it is the main theme here. Getting away with it is the criteria upon which criminals operate.

I'm sure that there are those who would say I'm being naive and silly by calling this sidewalk ordinance "unconstitutional". And I'm sure that any City Councilor who even broached the subject at a council meeting would be met with snobbish scoffing of such an uninformed legal opinion... especially amongst all those lawyers.

But just consider this: More Americans died fighting over this amendment to the Constitution than in any other war this country has ever fought. It wasn't just about freeing the slaves. Involuntary servitude to the whims of the ruling elite is what this country was founded upon. And I don't care how many lawyers want to explain to me how they've wangled the legal system over the years to rig it so that a challenge to this stupid sidewalk ordinance would fail in today's courts.

If the City Counselors can't recognize their propensity for such an un-American ruling, however petty and small this whole thing may seem, then they have no reason to call themselves Americans at all.