ALLIANCE
FOR CITIZENS RIGHTS
ALLIANCE
FOR CITIZENS RIGHTS
A WRENCHING TRANSFORMATION
Ever wonder where we are headed?
by Don Casey
According to Al Gore, transforming today's society from a state where over consumption threatens to devour the earth's resources into one ensuring respect for the earth and its new sustainable ethic will be a wrenching transformation . Evidence abounds that the groundwork for this wrenching transformation is now being laid.
Before documenting this, let us point out that the earth (and all therein) was created by God to glorify His Name. Such a minor detail, however, has never stopped naysayers from striving to create their own rules in attempts to govern His creation. Adopting His word as our guide to governing affords society freedom and security. The opposite is true of the naysayers' global agenda for sustainability. Their offer of freedom and security offers constraints for the body, the mind and the spirit. Simply put, their version of freedom is slavery. The following quote from an Austin, Texas website defining Sustainability proposes to restructure society. Unfortunately the proposed cure will be far worse than the supposed illness.
The term, sustainability, is meant to indicate whether a community is currently heading towards some sort of breakdown or towards health and prosperity for the long term. A breakdown might be something as specific as high crime rates, dead rivers, or high regional unemployment, or it may be as vague as widespread dissatisfaction with life and its opportunities.Sustainability is about our values. Our values determine what it is, what practices, places, relationships, opportunities, or things, we want to sustain. We must decide what kinds of lifestyles we want to have in what kind of environment and then examine our actions to determine if we are ruining the prospects for achieving or maintaining them. The crucial variable, the one over which we have the most control, is human action. This includes the ways in which we organize our society and interact with each other as well as the ways in which we provide for our material needs and interact with the physical environment. 1
The we referred to in the preceding quote will, out of necessity, be government and/or a public private partnership created to direct the reorganization of society. The Austin, Texas website lists fifteen reorganizational tools that local government can use to bring about Al Gore's wrenching transformation .
One of them is "Local Currency. The Austin, Texas website recommends issuing a local currency as a measure of a community's movement towards sustainable development . Under the Alabama 1901 Constitution, Section 248, local banks are prohibited from issuing local currency, and Section 249 stipulates "All notes or bills issued as money shall be redeemable in gold or silver." Sections 248 and 249 will therefore have to be repealed before a lawfully approved local currency can be issued. Seeking to eliminate the Constitutional roadblock, Rep Jack Venable, Speaker of the House, introduced legislation three years running - 2000, 2001, and 2002. The legislation passed the House unopposed but failed in the Senate.
During the 2002 Senate hearings, a state banking spokeswoman testified that revisions to the banking sections of the Constitution would not be beneficial. The representative described how local financial calamity prior to the passage of the 1901 Constitution ensured the passage of Sections 248 and 249 and their restrictions on local banking. Neither Representative Venable nor any cosponsor offered an explanation as to why the bill had been introduced and did not cite any problems associated with current language in the Constitution. It is certain that, while efforts to eliminate obstacles for local currency have failed, this tenet of globalization will resurface.
Consider that a currency issued by a local authority (government or financial establishment) would be accepted by local authorized merchants, and with today's technology the value of the item being purchased could be determined by point of sale software built into the area's mercantile computer system. An attempt to purchase goods or services from an unauthorized merchant or merchants outside your ecosystem could result in a devaluation of your currency or be denied altogether. One movement toward this objective has already occurred: Leeds, Alabama adopted a pilot project with similar tenets (the project currently sits on the shelf).
For those old enough to remember, script (paper currency) used to be issued by companies as payment to employees. This currency, acceptable only at company owned stores, forced the employee to purchase merchandise from the company. The elimination of competition restricted economic growth and personal freedom. The result of new efforts to issue local currency will be no less devastating on the citizens of the new sustainable community .
FOOTNOTE:
1. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sustainable/why_sust.htm
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