Dennis Hamel | GrokWatch News Desk
Preface: Steve Forster had a letter delivered to the Henniker Selectman regarding legal use of his property. The town fish-wrap wrote a front page story in response. Our good Friend Dennis Hamel has written in regard to the Villager’s article. (It will not yet have run in that paper, if they run it at all.) -Steve M.
To the editor:
I was more than a little surprised at the tabloid style used by the Villager on July 31st.
Last week’s front-page story about Forster’s Christmas Tree Farm bordered on hysteria. When a private citizen and taxpayer is openly harassed by a neighbor (in collusion with a part-time town employee who has delusions of grandeur), how did the Villager come to the conclusion that a simple notice to the Board of Selectmen was “DEFYING the town”?
As I understand it, the letter to the selectmen was simply to state that use of private property in ways NOT prohibited by law can and will take place. This is clearly part of American life.
In this country, we do not empower action with law. For example, there is no law that states that the Villager may distribute its paper to various locations on Fridays. Most of us who read the Villager, understand that that’s what takes place, and that the Villager does not require the permission of ANY government authority to do so.
We do have laws that PROHIBIT certain actions, generally for the good of the greater population. The creation of “targeted” legislation is both unconstitutional and prohibited.
So if (for example) the Town of Henniker were to write a new law prohibiting gatherings on a specific private property (like a farm) that law itself would be ILLEGAL. Much like the so-called “cease and desist order” from an otherwise powerless part-time government hack was ILLEGAL without a basis in existing law.
Steve Forster’s letter was in fact an assurance to the town that he would only engage in lawful activities on his private property, as is the right of EVERY American citizen and taxpayer.
I would hope the Villager would refrain from hysterical observations about DEFYING government in the future – “… Of the people, by the people, and for the people…” Is after all the model for this Constitutional Republic of ours.
Sincerely,
Dennis Hamel