Here come the taste police - editorial

(Another old Belgrade News editorial from August 26, 2005)

In my last column I wrote of the recent Supreme Court ruling that gave local government the power to abuse “eminent domain.” Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that the Bozeman city commission is going to do just that to a neighborhood in northeast Bozeman, and now on North 7th Avenue as well.

Apparently these are “blighted” areas. My thesaurus gives these synonyms: disfigured, diseased, stained, scarred, afflicted. How offended these property owners must be! In effect, the government has waltzed right into their living rooms as an uninvited guest and told them how ugly their couches are. Government is the busybody who always has a nose in other peoples’ business. Apparently, these homes are a disease, and the Bozeman city commissioners are the cure.

What troubles me most is that elected officials with too much power (and apparently, too much time on their hands) are surveying their kingdom and passing judgment on what is good and desirable and beautiful. It is the same perspective that makes the K-Mart parking lot a “sea of asphalt,” the community food co-op a beautiful structure, and box stores an evil thing.

They have a perspective, and they have the power to impose it on others. Too bad if you disagree with them.

Maybe if I had that power I’d make my own proclamations. For example, I happen to think those old cars on Huffine are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve had many cars just like that in my garage, some of which I have built back to as-new condition. If I were a city commissioner, I might require that every home in Bozeman have a rusty old car in their front yard.

Of course, I’m not a city commissioner. I don’t have the power to force my taste on other people. And that is the crux of the issue: I don’t think anyone should have this power.

No one should have the power to force law-abiding citizens to perform for the government against their will. No one should have to forfeit that which they worked for years to own, the place where their children grew up, where they have laughed and cried and lived their lives.

I’m not talking about government acting within its constitutionally defined authority; I’m talking about the abuse of power being exercised by people who just because they won an election think that they know better than you.

I know, they have such good reasons. Such noble intentions. Economic development, beautiful buildings, planned communities, and of course, increased tax revenue. The problem is, in this country people do not serve government’s interests. It is never about what is best for government. Government is not the highest expression of good in America.

And according to the principles of private property and individual liberty, whatever is best for the individual, as lawfully and morally chosen by that individual, is what’s best for the community and the country.