Everyone, including Marion McKeever, is entitled to their own opinions, no one, however, is entitled to their own “facts.” Nothing in Marion’s monologue goes beyond a misguided interpretation of reality.
I won’t try to point by point dissect her opinion, but leave that for any one who wants to read Agenda 21 and form their own opinion. There is no great mysterious conspiracy; no one is secretly controlling the planet in an attempt to take away any rights. No communities have been controlled by any outside forces, corrupted by an unseen enemy, or established any programs that would dissolve the rights of its citizens in the 22 years since the document was published.
It is voluntary. Her theory seems to suggest that any local decisions on policies, ordinances or laws that are agreed to by that community and that accepts ANY funding from any federal or state entity reduces our freedoms. It argues against any structure to society and in common terms, is anarchy.
Maybe her concern is identified in her opening statement about the “Earth Charter.” She alleges that the Earth Charter “is pagan – Mother Earth is to be Worshiped.” and further that it opposes Judeo-Christian beliefs. Earth Charter says no such things.
Not all of us are Judeo- Christians, however, and not holding those beliefs does not mean we oppose them, we just believe differently. That is the foundation of our marvelous experiment in democracy, the freedom to believe or not believe.
Earth Charter is a separate group, an organization that has opinions of its own, and the UN is not bound by their interests. Nor is our local community bound by anything either of those organizations propose, nor are we bound by any religious dogma: we do make up our own minds, and we do it inclusive of those, like Marion, that may disagree with us.
But those who disagree seem not to be quite as accepting of alternatives from the other side. A pity, after all, politics is the art of compromise, and compromise begs for difference of opinion.
As for the county board’s response to the Clean Water Act language, I’ll save that for another post.
Jerry Hiniker
Grand Marais
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