Monday, December 31, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
Anchorage 2020, Title 21, Smart Growth and UN Local Agenda 21
How Local is Anchorage 2020 Comprehensive Bowl Plan?
Putting together some new research for the local resistance to Agenda 21. This is the first draft.
The future "vision" for Anchorage was written by a private Denver Real Estate firm and the Anchorage Citizen's Coalition. The planners insist this vision is what the residents of Anchorage want. The ACC claims everyone in the "community" agreed on the plan. The 2020 plan itself says the community wants the plan.
As the Alaska Commons recently wrote: "If you haven’t heard of Title 21, you are in good company."
So what is Title 21?
implementation strategies. •Transferable development rights systems, •Affordable/fair housing
analyses •Design standards and guidelines, •Urban redevelopment evaluations, and
•International land use and governance systems.
http://www.ewg.org/transportation/letter/EWG-joins-allies-in-promoting-smart-transportation-planning
The ACC Expert Speaker Series features facilitators from two of the first communitarian pilot test cities in the United States, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. Two of the three "experts" have direct affiliation with the environmental law firm 1000 Friends of Oregon, whose affiliates in Washington were the lawyers seeking to abolish the WA state right to bring an initiative before the voters.
Robert Liberty
Beyond Freeways - How to Link Land Use and Transportation”
Connecting the Global to the Local
ACC member John Weddleton laughed and assured his audience on Nov 26, 2012, that Title 21 is not Agenda 21. Was he being honest? Does Anchorage 2020 advocate the same changes to our government structure based on recommendations inside UN Agenda 21? In the Future We Want - Outcome document, we easily find the answer.
Here's the UN Agenda 21 plan update:
{with direct quotes from Future We Want in RED}:
Creating Healthier Communities
Title 21: A Presentation on the Future of Anchorage
Among the speakers at this year’s State of Our City Forum, put on by Anchorage’s Community Councils and Community Patrols, was John Weddleton – a businessman and a Title 21 advocate.
If you haven’t heard of Title 21, you are in good company. However, your ranks will soon be dwindling.
Title 21 is the city’s land use code; the legal framework we use to figure out how to build our city for the foreseeable future. The code that we end up with has very real consequences when it comes to our property value, our quality of life, as well as how both of those transfer to future generations.
Weddleton delivered a ten minute primer to bring the forum’s attendees up to speed on one of the most important issues immediately facing the Anchorage community. The full video of the presentation is below the following transcription of his introduction. More information can be found at the Anchorage Citizens Coalition and the muni website.
The state of the city is remarkable. It’s very good. That’s now, but change is coming. The city has grown since I’ve been here and it will continue to grow. And our Comprehensive Plan was written in 2001 and thought we’d have twenty or thirty thousand more people in twenty years, and that won’t happen. But we just did another housing market study earlier this year, and it figured around the next twenty or thirty years, we’ll have twenty or thirty thousand people show up. And the interesting part of that is that if we develop like we’ve been developing in that time, we will be nine thousand housing units short of what we need to house these people.
So, things are going to change. We’re going to get a little more crowded. And something that is going to be very different from the previous change is [in the past] we could kind of spread out and just go to the next empty lot. But that’s not going to happen so much because we’ve kind of bumped into the boundaries.
The change will be coming to your neighborhood. And what we’ll be doing is tearing down the old building and building in the vacant lots and it will be a very different kind of growth than we’ve seen in the last many decades. So how are we going to handle it?
http://www.alaskacommons.com/2012/11/26/title-21-a-presentation-on-the-future-of-anchorage-by-john-weddleton/
December 6, 2012 Alaska, Anchorage, Class & Economics, Editorials, Issues
At the turn of the century, residents of the largest city in the 49th state recognized that the city was changing around them. The population had tripled since statehood. In the final decade of the twentieth century alone, the municipality added over thirty-thousand residents. Thus, in 2001, Anchorage residents turned to the pioneer spirit that built a city from tents spread over a couple city blocks on 4th Avenue, and sought to devise a strategy for the future of their city on the move.
The municipal assembly, the mayor, and an engaged citizenry, developed that strategy into a plan for development going into the future. It was called “Anchorage 2020: Anchorage Bowl Comprehensive Plan.”
Then-Mayor George Wuerch touted the process that led to it’s passage through the assembly: “The plan was produced over a five-year period through the collective efforts of many individuals and groups throughout the community,” he said in an introduction, also adding that the community process had produced “a better understanding of the many factors that contribute to the quality of life we enjoy in Anchorage.” He viewed the effort as something that should serve as a “guide for elected and appointed officials as they deliberate community development issues.”
The effort won a Public Education award from the American Planning Association, because of how the process that culminated in its existence “enlisted hundreds of citizens, published numerous clip-and-send surveys in local newspapers, and held well-publicized focus groups, workshops, organized task forces and community meetings” which clearly outlined the “future goals for the municipality as prescribed by the desires of its residents, who made educated decisions and selected preferences from clearly illustrated scenarios.”
A decade and change later, however, a new administration lead by Mayor Dan Sullivan – who voted for the plan as a member of the assembly in 2001 – has scheduled “Anchorage 2020” for a face-lift.
Some people aren’t too happy about that.
One of them is John Weddleton. Weddleton is a 25-year Anchorage resident, a businessman, and a self-described “Title 21 advocate.” Over the past handful of months, Weddleton has been on a tour around the city, addressing community councils and forums, giving voice to concerns regarding the “Title 21 Rewrite” as both a private citizen and as part of the Anchorage Citizens Coalition. The Coalition’s website states that their goal is to make Anchorage “the most livable city in America… [through] broad-based public involvement and implementation of Anchorage 2020….”
Weddleton appeared at last month’s “State of Our City” forum at Romig Middle School, and expressed concern over new things emerging in the rewrite which run counter to the 2001 plan. Some small aesthetic differences – for instance requiring that the architecture of new box stores blend in with the neighborhoods around them – can noticeably alter how a part of town feels. Conversely, it’s hard to get people excited about moving in next to giant cement shoe boxes. Seemingly small and uncontroversial protections put in to the “2020” plan via community input have legitimate multiplier effects, and can affect property values over extended periods of time. They were painstakingly put in the comprehensive plan for a reason. And many are being taken out, without the same clarity in reasoning.
“You need to ask yourself: What makes you happy to live in Anchorage?” Weddleton challenged the audience in West Anchorage in late November. “Where do you want to end up here?”
Well, how did any of us end up here? Title 21 has quite the timeline.
In 2011, Mayor Sullivan hired former Assemblyman Dan Coffey to a $30,000 contract as a consultant to make recommendations on a rewrite. Coffey’s history and knowledge of Title 21 is not lacking: he described himself to the Anchorage Press that year as a “land use and government regulatory attorney for over thirty years.” He served on the Planning and Zoning Commission during the Wuerch administration, when the Anchorage 2020 plan was adopted, and went on to join the assembly where he served two terms. Part of that job entailed him serving on the Title 21 committee.
But there is also a healthy dose of controversy, given Coffey’s prevalent ties to the Anchorage business community. Do Coffey’s business dealings and professional relationships represent a conflict of interest?
In June of last year, political strategist and pollster Ivan Moore coined an editorial for the Press that alleged Coffey had “only been allowing input from developer interests.”
Current Assemblywomen Elvi Gray Jackson narrowly lost to Dan Coffey in the 2007 municipal election before picking up the seat the following year. During that first run, her campaign published a website that aimed to raise questions as to who Coffey worked for as an elected official: special interests or the constituents who vote for him to represent them.
The anti-Coffey website, still online as of this writing, pointed out that between April 2004 and January 2007, assembly members had to either recuse themselves, were ordered to abstain from voting on 141 occasions, due to some sort of conflict of interest. Of the 141 total incidents, Coffey was the subject on 128 occasions (though on 8 accounts, he was still permitted to vote). These cases included his dealings with liquor stores, restaurants, hotels, clubs, quickie marts, car rental services, restaurants, and a singles’ club.
Coffey’s heavy entanglements with business ventures could constitute a conflict of interest as a consultant hired to make recommendations on the future land use code for the city. It certainly did on over a hundred occasions during his tenure on the Assembly.
But the former assemblyman countered, in a published response to Moore, that: “the emphasis should be on the words ‘make recommendations.’ Like me, the Commission has no authority to create or impose laws. It makes recommendations on land use law to the assembly. Our Charter gave the assembly, and no one else, the authority to adopt our laws.”
The assembly, however, is not a static body. And 2010 was a drastically different political landscape than today. At that time, the mayor faced a slim 6-5 margin that often opposed him. Two years later, Adam Trombley has replaced Mike Gutierrez in East Anchorage and Harriet Drummond has been elected to the state house. The assembly will appoint her replacement, who we can fairly safely assume will an ally of the mayor. Ernie Hall, since assuming the chairmanship, has generally supported the administration’s positions. The body’s current makeup (after Drummond’s appointment is seated) could rubber stamp any changes made by Coffey to the tune of an 8-3 split.
This shouldn’t come as much a surprise. Coffey used his involvement in the Title 21 rewrite in a 2011 campaign letter he sent out to the Anchorage Home Builders Association. In the letter, he stated that the coming municipal election offered “another clear choice between those who want to see our city grow and develop economically and those who want to impose costly and unnecessary government regulations on development.” He specifically endorsed candidates who would vote for his “re-work” of the legislation. One of the three, Adam Trombley, won.
Dianne Holmes, also a member of the Anchorage Citizens Coalition, testified before the Assembly two weeks after Coffey’s letter surfaced and objected. She felt that efforts for public involvement were “barely given lip service,” and elaborated: “The process has been stalled with sole source contracts…. Moreover, how can the public trust that their input is worth anything when the same contractor writes a political campaign letter saying that Title 21 is anti-development and that it is being reworked, not merely edited?”
There has been no public outcry. But Holmes’ assertion that this was by design doesn’t seem conspiratorial. Not when acknowledging that the assembly was expected to pass, in its entirety, the 2020 plan – which was already passed over ten years ago – two years ago.
Either way, the assembly will once more take up the issue on January 15. It will be under-reported. It won’t be understood with the necessity it demands. And its effects will change Anchorage over generations.
[John Aronno serves as staff to Patrick Flynn on the Assembly. His views are irreparably his own.]
http://www.alaskacommons.com/2012/12/06/redefining-anchorage-a-title-21-primer/
an interesting somewhat related article:
Focus on Agenda 21 Should Not Divert Attention from Homegrown Anti-Growth Policies
By Wendell Cox , Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D. and Brett D. Schaefer December 1, 2011
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/12/focus-on-agenda-21-should-not-divert-attention-from-homegrown-anti-growth-policies
Putting together some new research for the local resistance to Agenda 21. This is the first draft.
The future "vision" for Anchorage was written by a private Denver Real Estate firm and the Anchorage Citizen's Coalition. The planners insist this vision is what the residents of Anchorage want. The ACC claims everyone in the "community" agreed on the plan. The 2020 plan itself says the community wants the plan.
"Anchorage's comprehensive plan, "Anchorage 2020," was adopted in 2001. As part of the groundwork for "Anchorage 2020," a survey of 1,500 residents was conducted, asking about the most important attributes of their city. Three of the highest ranked attributes related to the natural setting of the city: trails/parks/greenbelts/open space, outdoor and recreational opportunities, and accessibility to the wilderness. Clearly, Anchorage residents highly value the scenic assets of the region. Reflecting these values, the "Anchorage 2020 Community Vision" states that Anchorage is a "northern community built in harmony with our natural resources and majestic setting." The plan directs a shift toward more concentrated land-use patterns with clusters of higher density employment centers." Integrating Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Anchorage Bowl 2025 Long Range Transportation Plan http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/Planning/csstp/cssanch.htmThe truth is, most Anchorage residents have never heard of their 2020 plan, or the laws that will enforce it.
As the Alaska Commons recently wrote: "If you haven’t heard of Title 21, you are in good company."
So what is Title 21?
"Title 21 is the city’s land use code; the legal framework we use to figure out how to build our city for the foreseeable future. The code that we end up with has very real consequences when it comes to our property value, our quality of life, as well as how both of those transfer to future generations." http://www.alaskacommons.com/2012/11/26/title-21-a-presentation-on-the-future-of-anchorage-by-john-weddleton/Leading the efforts to create a new legal framework for everyone living in Anchorage are city planners and attorneys with decades of experience, who understand the complexity of global communitarian law:
Don Elliott, FAICP Senior Consultant, is a director in Clarion's Denver office. Mr. Elliott is a land use lawyer and city planner with 28 years of related experience. He has worked on a diverse array of projects in his career at Clarion, including:•Complex development codes, •Hybrid and unified development codes •Sustainability
implementation strategies. •Transferable development rights systems, •Affordable/fair housing
analyses •Design standards and guidelines, •Urban redevelopment evaluations, and
•International land use and governance systems.
Mr. Elliott has served as project director for major zoning and development code revisions in Detroit, Philadelphia, Winnipeg, Duluth, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Bainbridge Island, Lake Oswego, and Cedar Rapids, as well as numerous other cities and counties throughout the country. He has drafted award-winning land use regulations for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Denver and Aurora, Colorado, Routt County, Colorado, and Pima County, Arizona, and has spoken and written extensively on a wide variety of land use and legal topics. Mr. Elliott has served as the Democracy and Governance Advisor for USAID/Uganda for two years, and has completed land use reform consultancies in India, Russia, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Liberia. He is the author of A Better Way to Zone (Island Press 2008), co-author of The Rules that Shape Urban Form (APA 2012) and The Citizen’s Guide to Planning (APA 2009), and the editor of Colorado Land Planning and Development Law. Prior to joining Clarion Associates, Mr. Elliott served as Project Director for the Denver Planning and Community Development Office and was responsible for the Gateway Zoning and Downtown Zoning Projects. He began his career practicing real estate law for the Denver law firm of Davis, Graham & Stubbs. Mr. Elliott holds a master's degree in city and regional planning from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a law degree from Harvard Law School, and a Bachelor of Science degree in urban and regional planning from Yale University. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a past president of the Colorado Chapter of the American Planning Association, a past national chairman of the Planning and Law Division of APA, and a member of the American, Colorado, and Denver Bar Associations. http://www.clarionassociates.com/about/team/elliott.phpThe Anchorage Citizen's Coalition promotes smart transportation alongside the main Regional Organizations in the Northwest, including 1,000 Friends of Oregon, Alaska Center for Public Policy, Anchorage Citizens Coalition (AK), Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage (AK), City of Portland (OR), Trimet (OR)
http://www.ewg.org/transportation/letter/EWG-joins-allies-in-promoting-smart-transportation-planning
The ACC Expert Speaker Series features facilitators from two of the first communitarian pilot test cities in the United States, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. Two of the three "experts" have direct affiliation with the environmental law firm 1000 Friends of Oregon, whose affiliates in Washington were the lawyers seeking to abolish the WA state right to bring an initiative before the voters.
Lynn Peterson
Safe Walking - the foundation of healthy communities”
PAST: February 5, Noon - 1:30pm, 5TH Floor Conference Room, City Hall
Anchorage Citizens Coalition brought Lynn Peterson to Anchorage to speak about the health effects of balanced transportation systems. Lynn is a highway designer and urban planner who chairs the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners. She lives in Lake Oswego and has worked with 1000 Friends of Oregon (environmental legal firm co-founded in 1973 by Tom McCall, former Republican Governor). Fregonese and Calthorpe, as well as Portland's TriMet transit system. Her March 2009 presentation can be found at http://www.clackamas.us/bcc/peterson/alaska.htm
Robert Liberty
Beyond Freeways - How to Link Land Use and Transportation”
PAST: June 26, 2009, noon to 1pm, City Hall, 8th Floor Conference Room.
Robert Liberty, elected councilor for Metro, Portland Oregon’s regional elected government, wrote the original proposal for 1000 Friends of Oregon to conduct Portland’s groundbreaking “Land Use, Transportation and Air Quality Study”in the late 1980’s. Mr. Liberty presented “Beyond Freeways – How to Link Land Use and Transportation” in June 2009 at City Hall. The heart of Robert’s message? Look for public and private investments that build Anchorage for easier walking and more frequent, more convenient public transportation. Look towards more compact and sustainable development to achieve mobility rather than relying on expensive high-speed freeways that promote sprawl.
Anchorage 2020 calls for a diverse, northern community with a thriving, sustainable, broad-based economy, a safe, healthy, active learning community.Federal policies are moving strongly in this direction. Housing, environmental and transportation agencies are working together to build “sustainable communities.” Transit officials will consider “livability” and the environment when financing public transportation projects. Proposed transportation law sets goals for reducing climate change and other air pollutants, increasing walking and biking and promoting infill and redevelopment.
Grace Crunican
Building a Sustainable Transportation System"
PAST: October 2008, Featured Speaker Annual Meeting, Loussac Library
Grace Crunican In October 2008, the Anchorage Citizens Coalition celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a presentation by Grace Crunican, expert in building sustainable transportation systems and currently director of Seattle's Department of Transportation. Ms. Crunican spoke to coalition members about "Building a Sustainable Transportation System." ("Mayor Nickels charged the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) with making Seattle the most walkable city in the nation. The Seattle Pedestrian Master Plan lays out the path to get us there." http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/pedestrian_masterplan/letter_grace.htm) Grace has had a distinguished career, including five years as Oregon's Director of Transportation and three years with the Federal Transit Administration. http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/about.htm
Connecting the Global to the Local
ACC member John Weddleton laughed and assured his audience on Nov 26, 2012, that Title 21 is not Agenda 21. Was he being honest? Does Anchorage 2020 advocate the same changes to our government structure based on recommendations inside UN Agenda 21? In the Future We Want - Outcome document, we easily find the answer.
Here's the UN Agenda 21 plan update:
The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 64/236 of 24 December 2009, in which it decided to organize the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development at the highest possible level in 2012, as well as its resolution 66/197 of 22 December 2011, http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/futurewewant.htmlThe Anchorage Citizens Coalition is a nonprofit membership organization that works for:
{with direct quotes from Future We Want in RED}:
Affordable homes near jobs
{134. we recognize the need for a holistic approach to urban development and human settlements that provides for affordable housing and infrastructure and prioritizes slum upgrading and urban regeneration}
Plentiful parks and open spaces
{135. protection and restoration of safe and green urban spaces}
Safe, balanced, economical transportation .. for all users
{136. We recognize the important role of municipal governments in setting a vision for sustainable cities, from the initiation of city planning through to revitalization of older cities and neighbourhoods, including by adopting energy efficiency programmes in building management and developing sustainable, locally appropriate transport systems}
Healthy, attractive neighborhoods
{135. a safe and healthy living environment for all}
A strong, sustainable economy
(199. We acknowledge the role of access and benefit-sharing arising from the utilization of genetic resources in contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, poverty eradication and environmental sustainability. }
Clean, healthful air and water
{135. safe and clean drinking water and sanitation; healthy air quality; generation of decent jobs; and improved urban planning and slum upgrading}
Meaningful public participation in government
{43. We underscore that broad public participation and access to information and judicial and administrative proceedings are essential to the promotion of sustainable development.}
We actively participate in comprehensive plan implementation, promote local and regional land use and transportation planning, publish a newsletter for members and sponsor events.
{22. We recognize examples of progress in sustainable development at the regional, national, subnational and local levels. We note that efforts to achieve sustainable development have been reflected in regional, national and subnational policies and plans, and that Governments have strengthened their commitment to sustainable development since the adoption of Agenda 21 through legislation and institutions, and the development and implementation of international, regional and subregional agreements and commitments. }
MembershipAnchorage Citizens Coalition works for Anchorage to become "the most livable city in the nation."
Supporting our causes is largely a volunteer effort of the Board and other members.
It's a huge task and we rely on contributions by individuals as well larger organizations.
Click here to make a contribution. For more information about the Anchorage Citizens Coalition, email anchoragecitizenscoalition@gmail.com. http://www.accalaska.org/about.html
Compare ACC's mission and accomplishments and Anchorage 2020 goals to 1000 Friends of Oregon. There are many other documents that say basically the same things about what Anchorage needs to do. Some go so far as to claim that Anchorage is "ground zero for climate change". Other amazing scientific observations are in the University of Alaska, Anchorage Climate Change Report 2010.In its first twelve years, ACC
Helped shape the development and adoption of Anchorage 2020, the city's comprehensive plan.
Facilitated public review of Title 21, Anchorage's land use laws, and continued monitoring and advising Title 21 revisions.
Sponsored the advocacy group "Transit Works for Anchorage."
Worked with government and school officials to document pedestrian safety needs and build projects such as school crossing zones for Hanshew Middle and Springhill Elementary Schools.
Watch-dogged major road construction projects such as the Highway to Highway freeway proposal.
Enlisted the expertise of numerous land development and transportation experts to advise local government.
Advocated for meaningful citizen participation in government decision-making.
Coalition president Michael Howard says:
In the ten years since Anchorage Citizens Coalition was organized at an old-fashioned town meeting, our volunteers have made Anchorage a better place. ACC informs citizens about the decisions that affect our homes, businesses and neighborhoods. Our volunteers were vigilant when Anchorage 2020 was developed and adopted, for the re-write of Title 21 our land use code, and for changes that balance our highway, trail, transit and pedestrian systems.
Creating Healthier Communities
Cool Communities can provide significant health benefits to Oregonians by creating better opportunities to safely walk, bike or take transit. More active transportation options translate to increased physical activity and better health for residents, as well as less air pollution and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Making it easier to walk and bike
Land use policies, development patterns and our transportation systems affect how we commute to work, run errands and other activities. Oregonians want to live in communities where people of all ages have many options to get where they need to go, without having to get in a car, including walking, biking, or using public transit. Increasing evidence is showing that this is a particular priority for younger Millennials and aging Baby Boomers, two generations that will drive real estate trendsfor decades to come.
Changes to our neighborhoods that make it easier to not rely on the automobile will have positive health benefits: increased physical activity, decreased air pollution, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. It will take action at every level (local, state, national) to effectively meet that challenge.
In 2007, the state of Oregon adopted greenhouse gas reduction goals to help reduce global warming. In 2009, the state Legislature directed the Portland Metro region to begin planning to reduce climate impacts, and encouraged the state's other metropolitan regions to do so as well.
Better coordination of transportation and land use planning in Oregon's largest cities will help meet the challenge, particularly when over one-third of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector. Fortunately, Oregon has begun to take steps to make this coordination happen.
Click here to find out more about Oregon's efforts to reduce grenhouse gas emissions from transportation, a process in which we are actively participating to ensure successful results for Oregon communities.
Making our air cleaner
We can reduce air pollution by making it easier for Oregonians to walk or bike rather than relying on the car for every trip. Less driving equals less air pollution. Even short auto trips that involve a 'cold start' (where the engine has cooled for an hour) can generate as much air pollution as a longer trip.
Ultimately, creating healthier neighborhoods starts with good street connectivity, a diversity of land uses, and creating jobs closer to where people live. 1000 Friends is dedicated to encouraging such patterns throughout Oregon. http://www.friends.org/vibrant/healthy
Title 21: A Presentation on the Future of Anchorage
by John Weddleton
November 26, 2012
Alaska, Anchorage, Class & Economics, Issues, VideoAmong the speakers at this year’s State of Our City Forum, put on by Anchorage’s Community Councils and Community Patrols, was John Weddleton – a businessman and a Title 21 advocate.
If you haven’t heard of Title 21, you are in good company. However, your ranks will soon be dwindling.
Title 21 is the city’s land use code; the legal framework we use to figure out how to build our city for the foreseeable future. The code that we end up with has very real consequences when it comes to our property value, our quality of life, as well as how both of those transfer to future generations.
Weddleton delivered a ten minute primer to bring the forum’s attendees up to speed on one of the most important issues immediately facing the Anchorage community. The full video of the presentation is below the following transcription of his introduction. More information can be found at the Anchorage Citizens Coalition and the muni website.
The state of the city is remarkable. It’s very good. That’s now, but change is coming. The city has grown since I’ve been here and it will continue to grow. And our Comprehensive Plan was written in 2001 and thought we’d have twenty or thirty thousand more people in twenty years, and that won’t happen. But we just did another housing market study earlier this year, and it figured around the next twenty or thirty years, we’ll have twenty or thirty thousand people show up. And the interesting part of that is that if we develop like we’ve been developing in that time, we will be nine thousand housing units short of what we need to house these people.
So, things are going to change. We’re going to get a little more crowded. And something that is going to be very different from the previous change is [in the past] we could kind of spread out and just go to the next empty lot. But that’s not going to happen so much because we’ve kind of bumped into the boundaries.
The change will be coming to your neighborhood. And what we’ll be doing is tearing down the old building and building in the vacant lots and it will be a very different kind of growth than we’ve seen in the last many decades. So how are we going to handle it?
http://www.alaskacommons.com/2012/11/26/title-21-a-presentation-on-the-future-of-anchorage-by-john-weddleton/
Redefining Anchorage: A Title 21 Primer
by John AronnoDecember 6, 2012 Alaska, Anchorage, Class & Economics, Editorials, Issues
At the turn of the century, residents of the largest city in the 49th state recognized that the city was changing around them. The population had tripled since statehood. In the final decade of the twentieth century alone, the municipality added over thirty-thousand residents. Thus, in 2001, Anchorage residents turned to the pioneer spirit that built a city from tents spread over a couple city blocks on 4th Avenue, and sought to devise a strategy for the future of their city on the move.
The municipal assembly, the mayor, and an engaged citizenry, developed that strategy into a plan for development going into the future. It was called “Anchorage 2020: Anchorage Bowl Comprehensive Plan.”
Then-Mayor George Wuerch touted the process that led to it’s passage through the assembly: “The plan was produced over a five-year period through the collective efforts of many individuals and groups throughout the community,” he said in an introduction, also adding that the community process had produced “a better understanding of the many factors that contribute to the quality of life we enjoy in Anchorage.” He viewed the effort as something that should serve as a “guide for elected and appointed officials as they deliberate community development issues.”
The effort won a Public Education award from the American Planning Association, because of how the process that culminated in its existence “enlisted hundreds of citizens, published numerous clip-and-send surveys in local newspapers, and held well-publicized focus groups, workshops, organized task forces and community meetings” which clearly outlined the “future goals for the municipality as prescribed by the desires of its residents, who made educated decisions and selected preferences from clearly illustrated scenarios.”
A decade and change later, however, a new administration lead by Mayor Dan Sullivan – who voted for the plan as a member of the assembly in 2001 – has scheduled “Anchorage 2020” for a face-lift.
Some people aren’t too happy about that.
One of them is John Weddleton. Weddleton is a 25-year Anchorage resident, a businessman, and a self-described “Title 21 advocate.” Over the past handful of months, Weddleton has been on a tour around the city, addressing community councils and forums, giving voice to concerns regarding the “Title 21 Rewrite” as both a private citizen and as part of the Anchorage Citizens Coalition. The Coalition’s website states that their goal is to make Anchorage “the most livable city in America… [through] broad-based public involvement and implementation of Anchorage 2020….”
Weddleton appeared at last month’s “State of Our City” forum at Romig Middle School, and expressed concern over new things emerging in the rewrite which run counter to the 2001 plan. Some small aesthetic differences – for instance requiring that the architecture of new box stores blend in with the neighborhoods around them – can noticeably alter how a part of town feels. Conversely, it’s hard to get people excited about moving in next to giant cement shoe boxes. Seemingly small and uncontroversial protections put in to the “2020” plan via community input have legitimate multiplier effects, and can affect property values over extended periods of time. They were painstakingly put in the comprehensive plan for a reason. And many are being taken out, without the same clarity in reasoning.
“You need to ask yourself: What makes you happy to live in Anchorage?” Weddleton challenged the audience in West Anchorage in late November. “Where do you want to end up here?”
Well, how did any of us end up here? Title 21 has quite the timeline.
In 2011, Mayor Sullivan hired former Assemblyman Dan Coffey to a $30,000 contract as a consultant to make recommendations on a rewrite. Coffey’s history and knowledge of Title 21 is not lacking: he described himself to the Anchorage Press that year as a “land use and government regulatory attorney for over thirty years.” He served on the Planning and Zoning Commission during the Wuerch administration, when the Anchorage 2020 plan was adopted, and went on to join the assembly where he served two terms. Part of that job entailed him serving on the Title 21 committee.
But there is also a healthy dose of controversy, given Coffey’s prevalent ties to the Anchorage business community. Do Coffey’s business dealings and professional relationships represent a conflict of interest?
In June of last year, political strategist and pollster Ivan Moore coined an editorial for the Press that alleged Coffey had “only been allowing input from developer interests.”
Current Assemblywomen Elvi Gray Jackson narrowly lost to Dan Coffey in the 2007 municipal election before picking up the seat the following year. During that first run, her campaign published a website that aimed to raise questions as to who Coffey worked for as an elected official: special interests or the constituents who vote for him to represent them.
The anti-Coffey website, still online as of this writing, pointed out that between April 2004 and January 2007, assembly members had to either recuse themselves, were ordered to abstain from voting on 141 occasions, due to some sort of conflict of interest. Of the 141 total incidents, Coffey was the subject on 128 occasions (though on 8 accounts, he was still permitted to vote). These cases included his dealings with liquor stores, restaurants, hotels, clubs, quickie marts, car rental services, restaurants, and a singles’ club.
Coffey’s heavy entanglements with business ventures could constitute a conflict of interest as a consultant hired to make recommendations on the future land use code for the city. It certainly did on over a hundred occasions during his tenure on the Assembly.
But the former assemblyman countered, in a published response to Moore, that: “the emphasis should be on the words ‘make recommendations.’ Like me, the Commission has no authority to create or impose laws. It makes recommendations on land use law to the assembly. Our Charter gave the assembly, and no one else, the authority to adopt our laws.”
The assembly, however, is not a static body. And 2010 was a drastically different political landscape than today. At that time, the mayor faced a slim 6-5 margin that often opposed him. Two years later, Adam Trombley has replaced Mike Gutierrez in East Anchorage and Harriet Drummond has been elected to the state house. The assembly will appoint her replacement, who we can fairly safely assume will an ally of the mayor. Ernie Hall, since assuming the chairmanship, has generally supported the administration’s positions. The body’s current makeup (after Drummond’s appointment is seated) could rubber stamp any changes made by Coffey to the tune of an 8-3 split.
This shouldn’t come as much a surprise. Coffey used his involvement in the Title 21 rewrite in a 2011 campaign letter he sent out to the Anchorage Home Builders Association. In the letter, he stated that the coming municipal election offered “another clear choice between those who want to see our city grow and develop economically and those who want to impose costly and unnecessary government regulations on development.” He specifically endorsed candidates who would vote for his “re-work” of the legislation. One of the three, Adam Trombley, won.
Dianne Holmes, also a member of the Anchorage Citizens Coalition, testified before the Assembly two weeks after Coffey’s letter surfaced and objected. She felt that efforts for public involvement were “barely given lip service,” and elaborated: “The process has been stalled with sole source contracts…. Moreover, how can the public trust that their input is worth anything when the same contractor writes a political campaign letter saying that Title 21 is anti-development and that it is being reworked, not merely edited?”
There has been no public outcry. But Holmes’ assertion that this was by design doesn’t seem conspiratorial. Not when acknowledging that the assembly was expected to pass, in its entirety, the 2020 plan – which was already passed over ten years ago – two years ago.
Either way, the assembly will once more take up the issue on January 15. It will be under-reported. It won’t be understood with the necessity it demands. And its effects will change Anchorage over generations.
[John Aronno serves as staff to Patrick Flynn on the Assembly. His views are irreparably his own.]
http://www.alaskacommons.com/2012/12/06/redefining-anchorage-a-title-21-primer/
an interesting somewhat related article:
Focus on Agenda 21 Should Not Divert Attention from Homegrown Anti-Growth Policies
By Wendell Cox , Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D. and Brett D. Schaefer December 1, 2011
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/12/focus-on-agenda-21-should-not-divert-attention-from-homegrown-anti-growth-policies
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Five Gertee Travelers Combined
Ever since Team Gertee was evicted for scaring the tourists last summer, I've thought more about how people see us Gertee dwellers, and what they imagine we're like. Gertee definitely has her fans, we continue to meet wonderful people doing this, but we have a lot of detractors too. What gets lost in the arguments over the Gertee idea, is the fact that we do NOT suggest anyone else needs to live like this, we offer it only as another alternative option in the housing crisis to people who cannot afford to rent or buy a standard built home. Obviously not everyone agrees poor people have any right to live within their means.
The main impetuous behind my ACL research in 1999 was the way we were described inside our Seattle Local Agenda 21 Plan: "transients with a significant negative impact on the neighborhood." As we lived near the University of Washington and 65 blocks from downtown, there were many different kinds of people in our neighborhood. I found their insulting terminology unnacceptable, and I was naive enough to think I could force them to remove such foul language from their plan..
I was not a property owner or a business owner in Seattle. I was a renter, and the only reason I began the property rights portion of my all volunteer research project is because I understood U.S. law was based on property. I began studying Communitarian Law when I found it to be the source for all the changes to U.S. law that balanced individual rights against the community at large. That was in 2000. Today I am one of the most informed students on Communitarian Law in the world, and thousands of other students and professionals have benefitted from the research we so freely share online. Many of the people access our published materials and use the information to protect their homes, property and towns from invasive communitarian programs, policies and legislation.
I know it's hard for some people to understand that Gertee is an experimental lifestyle that supports my volunteer work at the ACL, mainly because hardly anyone knows what the ACL is, or what my research represents. To the average passer-by, I look just like any other poor white trash crackhead/alcoholic/public inebriate, and once someone's in the "lowlife" category they are easily written off as useless eaters. The irony of our continued defense of private property rights for Americans who snub us and sneer at my poverty is not lost on me.
But yes, I did know the outsides were dumpy looking. How dumpy they looked was proven to me by the continual "oh my I had no idea it would look like this" exclamations from everyone who came inside them. I always wished I could afford better exterior covers, they could be the most expensive and largest pieces of material Gertee uses, but I put my best materials inside and skimped on the outside.. function not beauty was the goal. Now I'm making more of an effort to make them look nice outside too, even though I'm working with even less capital than I had in Kenny Lake.
We moved to a new RV Park in July. Our new camp has 5 Gertees, one 10', one 12', one 14', and two 9'. They are attached to 4 doorways of the 10' Gertee in the middle. The center "hearth" Gertee has a woodstove under the metal roof ring/crown.
Each of the 3 main Gertees has a different roof ring and both the 12' and the 14' have 2 center 2x6" posts holding up the crowns. The first Gertee we erected was made from an assortment of leftovers. The bottom of a round bamboo chair became the roof ring/crown.
It worked great, and we used the "seriously recycled Gertee" to put all our stuff in while we built the main living areas with insulated floors. The first one is now the shop/office (and the only room that picks up the park's wireless). It still doesn't have a floor in it, so it can only be used if the outside temperature is above zero. It's the only floor that flooded during the big rains and floods this past fall, and the only Gertee Traveler that has a heavy duty vinyl roofcover.
Wasilla doesn't get quite as cold as Kenny Lake does, so we've got by with a lot less insulation and were able to stretch out the scraps we've been hoarding. We planned to build two, ended up building five little ones around the woodstove in the center. Now each "side" of the kitchen Gertee has a doorway with another Gertee attached.
The center kitchen Gertee has the entrance door, woodstove in center, PVC roof poles, 2x4 wall frames. A new Tool Store opened up in Meadow Lake that has white heavy tarps for resonable prices, the 10'x10' is $10., 15'x15' is $20. The white tarps really helped them look cleaner.
9' umbrella used for a roofcover for water closet
donated new-in-package bed pads for insulation
'9' umbrella Gertee next to utilities
16'x16' piece of donated Alyeska scrap vinyl
The vinyl works great for the roof
Wish I had more! I'd use it for floors too.
9' new ($50.) umbrella roof for entry Gertee.
The umbrella is not waterproof so must be covered.
The main impetuous behind my ACL research in 1999 was the way we were described inside our Seattle Local Agenda 21 Plan: "transients with a significant negative impact on the neighborhood." As we lived near the University of Washington and 65 blocks from downtown, there were many different kinds of people in our neighborhood. I found their insulting terminology unnacceptable, and I was naive enough to think I could force them to remove such foul language from their plan..
I was not a property owner or a business owner in Seattle. I was a renter, and the only reason I began the property rights portion of my all volunteer research project is because I understood U.S. law was based on property. I began studying Communitarian Law when I found it to be the source for all the changes to U.S. law that balanced individual rights against the community at large. That was in 2000. Today I am one of the most informed students on Communitarian Law in the world, and thousands of other students and professionals have benefitted from the research we so freely share online. Many of the people access our published materials and use the information to protect their homes, property and towns from invasive communitarian programs, policies and legislation.
I know it's hard for some people to understand that Gertee is an experimental lifestyle that supports my volunteer work at the ACL, mainly because hardly anyone knows what the ACL is, or what my research represents. To the average passer-by, I look just like any other poor white trash crackhead/alcoholic/public inebriate, and once someone's in the "lowlife" category they are easily written off as useless eaters. The irony of our continued defense of private property rights for Americans who snub us and sneer at my poverty is not lost on me.
But yes, I did know the outsides were dumpy looking. How dumpy they looked was proven to me by the continual "oh my I had no idea it would look like this" exclamations from everyone who came inside them. I always wished I could afford better exterior covers, they could be the most expensive and largest pieces of material Gertee uses, but I put my best materials inside and skimped on the outside.. function not beauty was the goal. Now I'm making more of an effort to make them look nice outside too, even though I'm working with even less capital than I had in Kenny Lake.
We moved to a new RV Park in July. Our new camp has 5 Gertees, one 10', one 12', one 14', and two 9'. They are attached to 4 doorways of the 10' Gertee in the middle. The center "hearth" Gertee has a woodstove under the metal roof ring/crown.
Each of the 3 main Gertees has a different roof ring and both the 12' and the 14' have 2 center 2x6" posts holding up the crowns. The first Gertee we erected was made from an assortment of leftovers. The bottom of a round bamboo chair became the roof ring/crown.
It worked great, and we used the "seriously recycled Gertee" to put all our stuff in while we built the main living areas with insulated floors. The first one is now the shop/office (and the only room that picks up the park's wireless). It still doesn't have a floor in it, so it can only be used if the outside temperature is above zero. It's the only floor that flooded during the big rains and floods this past fall, and the only Gertee Traveler that has a heavy duty vinyl roofcover.
Wasilla doesn't get quite as cold as Kenny Lake does, so we've got by with a lot less insulation and were able to stretch out the scraps we've been hoarding. We planned to build two, ended up building five little ones around the woodstove in the center. Now each "side" of the kitchen Gertee has a doorway with another Gertee attached.
10' central kitchen gertee going up
The center kitchen Gertee has the entrance door, woodstove in center, PVC roof poles, 2x4 wall frames. A new Tool Store opened up in Meadow Lake that has white heavy tarps for resonable prices, the 10'x10' is $10., 15'x15' is $20. The white tarps really helped them look cleaner.
Front doorway and arctic entry frame going up
I got a truckload of useable old/uneven boards from the lumber mill next door for $10! There was enough wood to cut the frames for both 9' additions
small counter and 2 stools in kitchen
I built the kitchen counter out of a shelf, some wood I used in the greenhouse gertee, and covered the stools and the table edge with a cut up vinyl picnic basket. The stools are metal and bamboo from a second hand store in Big Lake. The snap together flooring pad was an extravagant new purchase, one box covering 64 sq ft is $33. at Three Bears.
Inside entrance doorway
top of walls insulated with (unused!) adult diapers
top of walls insulated with (unused!) adult diapers
After we finished the cookshack and got the stove running, we bought 2 sheets of 4'x8' insulation and 2 4'x8' sheets of 3/4 inch plywood ($120.00) and laid down a floor for the riveted pvc khana walls.
First 2 gertees covered and "done," 3rd under construction.
Modifying the original gertee roof ring..again!
I was able to put the roof up myself because of the center posts.
Center posts become a bookshelf.
The RV park has water/sewer and electric hookups at every site. We built the water closet as close to the sewage drain as I could fit it without crossing over the space lines. When I finally get the pipe I can hook into the drain and have somewhere inside to dump the slop buckets. Living in a "dry" space means we have to haul and store water in jugs and pots, and we are the drains too. It's more work than most people want to adjust to. I'm one of those who will be thrilled to install water and sewage pipes. I think plumbing (after electric) is one of the best perks of civilization. Spa Gertee coming soon!
9' umbrella used for a roofcover for water closet
donated new-in-package bed pads for insulation
'9' umbrella Gertee next to utilities
Our weather conditions mean we have to use very strong waterproof materials on the roof. Last winter Wasilla got way more snow than normal, and we learned a lot our first winter here. The most amazing discovery was how well the 3/4 inch PVC roof poles hold up under a large snowload. They don't have the weight to hold the roof down during big winds, but they bend and don't break under heavy roof pressure. Just a few sticks of rebar inserted inside the pipe adds enough weight.
16'x16' piece of donated Alyeska scrap vinyl
The vinyl works great for the roof
Wish I had more! I'd use it for floors too.
The final Gertee in this combination is a 9' arctic entry. This was the second one of this model so it went up, from start to finish, in about 5 hours. I cut the boards with my chainsaw. I made 7 frames, 3'Wx5'H and attached them together with cheap zip ties that busted in a big windstorm last week. Some things can't be skimped on, and zip ties that cost more but don't break are much better. I used lite rope to fix the places that broke apart, so it wasn't a big disaster.
Wood for 9' Gertee: 16, 5' boards and 16, 3' boards
9' new ($50.) umbrella roof for entry Gertee.
The umbrella is not waterproof so must be covered.
Finished just in time for first snowfall.
So far the woodstove in the center Gertee will heat all three main rooms if the outside temperature is above 10 degrees F. The back 14' will need more insulation on the walls and some sort of floor covering to be useable when it gets down past zero.
Nordica's been invited to be part of a theatrical production at Burchill High School in Wasilla with some slam poets and artists she knows. We're thinking of ways to build a Gertee on stage during the performance. There are over 1000 homeless teenagers in the Valley, and more than half of them attend school regularly. We think Gertee might just appeal to some of these kids who manage to keep their independence and spirit in spite of all the odds stacked against them.
We already know Gertee won't appeal to the middle class regulators in local government and "helper" organizations that want to put homeless in monitored shelters and micromanage their lives. Offering actual housing to the homeless is practically a taboo. Offering housing that doesn't cost much and doesn't require a bunch of paperwork and international building codes is unheard of in these communitarian times. Doing anything without grant funding or corporate sponsors is just too radical.
In many ways, Gertee is more of a political statement than the ACL.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
The US version of Common Purpose UK in Millerton, NY
While the majority of people waking up to the real threat of Agenda 21 are allowing themselves to be manipulated into the right v left dialectic, there is a tiny percentage of people who are not.
{begin letter}
Hi Niki:I have been following your writing for quite a while and have much respect for your integrity and the invaluable work you have done.
I live in Millerton NY about 2 1/2 hours north of NYC in northern Dutchess County. There are less than 400 people in the Village of Millerton and I think a little less than 3,000 in the Town, which is called North East. Two and a half years ago I picked up the local newspaper and read an article that made bells go off. A lawyer for an affordable housing developer was quoted telling a resident at a local hearing that it was costing the applicant too much time and money to educate her. I don't even know specifically what I had read to that point to tell me this but I thought, "This is Agenda 21."
I have been fighting ever since and have had some good success at holding them off. Whenever someone's rights are threatened by the sustainable juggernaut I'm there, usually with just the few people who are directly affected. But we've held off the housing, and the unneccesary expensive sewers for the housing, and a few other things.
The reason I am writing now, is because something is happening here and I feel out of my depth. I think it could be a national story with legs, especially on alternative sites on the internet, but I don't know who to talk to. I believe if we don't get help from outside, Millerton and North East, may lose this one.
Of course, it's a story that will not be easily understood by those stuck in the left/right paradigm, so even though I considered some right wing sites/people, I'm not comfortable with that.
Brooke Lehman, daughter of Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman and Orin Lehman, former NY Parks Commissioner, grandaughter of the founder of Lehman Brothers, is before the North East ZBA and Planning Boards with a request for a Special Use Permit for an educational center she claims will teach sustainable farming and living and leadership skills, etc. The families who live near it are fighting this because thay know that Lehman is an anti-capitalist, anti-US sovereignty, Marxist, black bloc anarchist revolutionary active in Occupy Wall Street. We now know her non-profit Watershed Center is already supporting Occupy training programs through an entity called Occupy Manifest. If you read the story on RT/Russia Today website recently that talked about the Ntrepid Co.'s Tartan Metrics program (anarchist tracking) she fits the profile. I oppose illegal surveillance of the lawful, but she is one of those who should be tracked in my opinion. We also know Occupy is deliberately moving into rural areas like ours.
I am fighting her for all of those reasons and because the Institute for Social Ecology she taught at is Communitarian, her Watershed Center (www.thewatershedcenter.org/) lists as a main activity Capacity Building on its non-profit profile and our local community council is fighting like hell to get her in. http://www.taxexemptworld.com/
The Agenda 21 supporters have stacked the ZBA. Lehman is being treated like a prom queen, and no one seems to know about her radical/dirty bookstore, Bluestockings. Meanwhile, today my latest letter to the editor of the local paper was censored. They said they would cut "most of it" because they have suddenly decided not to print things that have already been gone over and are redundant in their opinion (it wasn't). So I said don't print at all. This, three days after a letter from Lehman appeared, asking the paper to stop the "personal attacks" against her (formerly known as "the truth.") Both boards swear there is no legal way to stop her, but it's clear that at least the ZBA which was conveniently given lead agency, doesn't want to. They dismiss the public and then reconvene after her opponents leave. The Planning Board dismissed the public and then called for public comment in a near empty room (myself and parther and Lehman were the only ones left.)
If you have any guidance I'd appreciate it. Feel free to post this on your site, if you feel it will get the ball rolling.
Pam from Millerton
{end letter}
From the Watershed site: "The Watershed is pleased to announce that after a five-year land search, we have found the land and farming partner of our dreams. We have partnered with the illustrious and industrious Andy Szymanowicz of Sol Flower Farm (Ancramdale, NY) and together we are preparing our move to Mt Riga Farm in Millerton NY.
As part of this preparation, Brooke Lehman, who will own the land that we will be leasing is applying for a special permit from the local zoning board, and then applying for site plan approval, followed by board of health certification (etc…). It is quite an involved process, and yet it has also been a real pleasure to get to participate in a healthy local democratic process. The Watershed Center has received so much support from the community that it has made us even more excited about the prospect of settling in Millerton."
As part of this preparation, Brooke Lehman, who will own the land that we will be leasing is applying for a special permit from the local zoning board, and then applying for site plan approval, followed by board of health certification (etc…). It is quite an involved process, and yet it has also been a real pleasure to get to participate in a healthy local democratic process. The Watershed Center has received so much support from the community that it has made us even more excited about the prospect of settling in Millerton."
As our Canadian contributor to 2020, Paul Barnes commented on the last blog post I made, the definition of "community" is critical to understanding how the game works. I'm gathering research that focuses on the term, how it's used and how it's abused. EVERY plan I've ever read claims to have broad "community" support for the plan, and what that actually means is the Communitarians support it, not the people who actually live where the plan is being implemented. This Watershed Center uses the same language we've seen in Anchorage 2020 and the Seattle plans, and makes the same claims. Since it's a training center, it means the students will also become proficient at making it appear the residents support their programs for change, when the truth is most residents rarely know anything about the programs ot how they'll change the lives of everyone living in the "community."
Friday, September 7, 2012
What's going on in the alternative media and their spin on communitarianism?
The Madville Times writer who told me there are many other dedicated anti communitarian writers is ridiculing me again, but this time in a new post, lol! He's so close to getting it, he already got it. http://madvilletimes.com/2012/08/romney-ryan-the-communitarian-ticket/
My last blog post detailed the exchange I had with that Madville writer. I did wonder about why my posting my background in this subject became the focus of his refutation of my comments. So I posted the exchange here and on facebook. I asked all my friends if they were aware of any other dedicated anticommunitarian researchers, besides Jeri Ball, who have written an original thesis against it, studied it enclusively, or kept up with it. One friend from France explained anti communautairistes in France, which was very helpful, but he did not answer my question.
The latest article by Debra Rae at newswithviews.com reads like an attempt to prove the Madville Time's point. This article has no citations or any explanation of how Debra arrived at her opinions and conclusions. Looks to me like Rae borrowed heavily from many of our ideas, because she copies almost verbatim explanations of communitarianism I have written in the past.
"communitarianism is a collectivist social philosophy, political theory, legal
system—even theology—" COOLECTIVIST MINDSET: RECIPE
FOR REVOLUTION
By Debra
Rae
September 7, 2012, NewsWithViews.com http://www.newswithviews.com/Rae/debra219.htm
September 7, 2012, NewsWithViews.com http://www.newswithviews.com/Rae/debra219.htm
This is the first time Rae has written this line that exists anywhere online. I can find it nowhere in anything else she's published. But I know it's not the first time she's seen it.
"Communitarianism is the philosophy, the theology, the political theory, and the legal system for all new "community governments." Niki Raapana, wikipedia "Talk Communitarianism" page, 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ACommunitarianism/archive1
"Twenty-first century communitarianism is a philosophical, political, and legal theory." Niki Raapana Communitarianism is a Three Level Con-Job, 2006
"Modern Communitarianism is a philosophy based in the Hegelian dialectic, an
economic and social theory based in Soviet Marxism, a legal theory based in
Chinese communism, and a metaphysical belief in the Kabbalah-Torah-Talmudic Law,
Lucifer and/or The Holy Bible. Dialectical reasoning began more than 2000 years
ago. (For clarification of the ACL co-founder Niki Raapana's position on
religion, see: The
Role of Religion in the Communitarian Synthesis.)" Niki Raapana 2006 http://web.archive.org/web/20061208101055/http://nord.twu.net/acl/etzioni.html
A keyword search for "Debra Rae Communitarianism" leads to five articles, including:
http://www.conservativecrusader.com/articles/the-economics-of-megachurchianity-part-2-communitarian-church-growth-movement published in 2011. Rae doesn't mention this article by Bob Johnson that reported much of the same on the Communitarian Church Growth Movement in 2009: http://www.johnmacarthurexposed.blogspot.com/. Johnson cites us at length, emailed several times while he was writing his article about it.
Rae writes about the Hegelian connection to communitarianism now too:
"Hegelian
Dialectic
To foster collectivism,
communitarians (meaning “members of a commune”) employ Hegelian Dialectic, also
known as conflict resolution or the Delphi technique. German philosopher George
Frederick Hegel (1770-1831) achieved group consensus under peer pressure by (1)
posing a thesis, (2) offering its antithesis, and then (3) synthesizing the two. Debra Rae
Many people have written about Hegel and the Hegelian Dialectical methods and the Delphi technique. The difference between those writers and us is we named Communitarianism in our research on the Hegelian dialectic, it was the focus of our opposition argument, and we said the theory of communitarianism does a lot more than "foster collectivism".
Our original theory showing it's the final Third Way Hegelian synthesis is What is the Hegelian Dialectic? Part One of our Anti Communitarian Manifesto was first written in 2002, posted online in 2003. Our original antithesis to communitarianism has been copied and reposted all over the internet. It's been in paperback since 2008.
Many webhosts have asked permission to reproduce portions of our antithesis, like Berit Kjos:
What is the Hegelian Dialectic?
By Niki Raapana and
Nordica Friedrich
October 2005
I've also written numerous other articles about the Hegelian synthesis called Communitarianism. Many were published at newswithviews where Rae's latest article is posted. Owner Paul Walter requires an exclusive when he publishes a piece, and he also has very high standards for references and citations. How did Rae's unethical attempt to claim our ACL work as her own get past him?
Rae's written a long list of articles for newswithviews. I didn't open and read every one so if she can show where she made her conclusions prior to 2003, if she has anything at all that backs up her claims, I will back off on my accusations. But in 2010, Rae was using the word "commonism" to explain Communitarianism. I rememember reading this article back then and being irritated that she seemed to be purposely avoiding the real word.
"When global
super-capitalism is mated with communism, the result is a world socialist
government called “commonism.” By transforming private intellectual assets and
nationally-controlled natural resources into the global commons, commonism
effectively weds the bourgeoisie and the working proletariat—allegedly, for the
greater good."
CAPITALISM, COMMUNISM, OR
COMMONISM: WORLDVIEWS IN CRISIS
By Debra
Rae
July 3, 2010
NewsWithViews.com
July 3, 2010
NewsWithViews.com
An active JBS member, Tom DeWeese, began pushing the term Commonism in 2000. http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/1100commonism.htm. He was still pushing it in 2007. Deweese doesn't use the term communitarianism once in this article:
DAWN OF THE ERA OF COMMON-ISM
By Tom DeWeese
May 23, 2007
NewsWithViews.com
There is no definition of commonism in the online dictionaries, which redirect viewers to their "communism" pages.
In 2007, I bought the domain address for nikiraapana.com because I was advised to. I used a weird GoDaddy program and put up a five page short overview of my position. I listed the people I was aware of who knew the word. By then I was sure the word was breaking out and they would write more about it. Instead of picking the term up and running with it, most of the anti Agenda 21 writers I contacted decided to not use the word "Communitarianism". I was being generous when I made this list in 2007 (and I'm not sure why I left Jeri Ball, who we cite in 2020 and TACM, off it):
Other writers/speakers who study political communitarianism:
Michael Shaw (stopped using the term in 2009, replaced it with Tyranny)
Paul Barnes (contributor from Canada to our book 2020)
Chris Gerner (disappeard off the internet)
Nancy Levant (disappeared, returned, stopped writing about it)
Constance Cumby (went on her radio show once, huge fight with her readers over Zionism)
Charlotte Iserbyt (wrote encouraging email about our ACL research)
Devvy Kidd (close friend of Jeri Ball who has recommended our work over the years)
Bobby Garner (not sure what happened to him)
Berit Kjos (still researching communitarianism, reproduced pages from the ACL at her site)
Phillip Worts (we cited him in our antithesis. never used the word)
Darren Weeks (still has a radio show, uses the word, we're no longer in touch)
Joan Veon (she used the term once or twice, we were never in contact)
Dr. Michael Coffman (I don't think he ever used the term)
Tom DeWeese (he used it in one article that I know of)
Michael Shaw (stopped using the term in 2009, replaced it with Tyranny)
Paul Barnes (contributor from Canada to our book 2020)
Chris Gerner (disappeard off the internet)
Nancy Levant (disappeared, returned, stopped writing about it)
Constance Cumby (went on her radio show once, huge fight with her readers over Zionism)
Charlotte Iserbyt (wrote encouraging email about our ACL research)
Devvy Kidd (close friend of Jeri Ball who has recommended our work over the years)
Bobby Garner (not sure what happened to him)
Berit Kjos (still researching communitarianism, reproduced pages from the ACL at her site)
Phillip Worts (we cited him in our antithesis. never used the word)
Darren Weeks (still has a radio show, uses the word, we're no longer in touch)
Joan Veon (she used the term once or twice, we were never in contact)
Dr. Michael Coffman (I don't think he ever used the term)
Tom DeWeese (he used it in one article that I know of)
I don't claim to be the only writer who's ever written about communitarianism negatively. But I have been at this for too long to not know if anyone else has written an orignal antithesis to the philosophy, the law, or the religion. I followed the communitarians and continued to write about it in articles, letters, blogs, books and the MOST boring FaceBook status updates, continuously, relentlessly saying the word in every way possible. The topic of Communitarianism has defined the course of my life for over twelve years. Exposing my countrymen to the term has been a number one priority ever since I learned the new system's name. That's what I mean by dedicated, and yeah I know, now it looks like I'm a fanatic because I cared about exposing Communitarianism so much I made it my life's work.
One time I put up a list of every opposition writer I knew of on wikipedia's Communitarian page, but it was quickly removed. I always hoped there would be a lot more opposition views as the years went by. What I envisioned was fresh ways of seeing it, coverage of areas I hadn't touched so I could learn from them too. It is still my hope that my work reaches and inspires people with the honorable qualities shown by Tomas Wood, Donna Martin, Terry Mendleson, Berit Kjos, Bobby Garner, John Francis Walker, the Angry Cheese and many others who directly cite or link to our work.
One time I put up a list of every opposition writer I knew of on wikipedia's Communitarian page, but it was quickly removed. I always hoped there would be a lot more opposition views as the years went by. What I envisioned was fresh ways of seeing it, coverage of areas I hadn't touched so I could learn from them too. It is still my hope that my work reaches and inspires people with the honorable qualities shown by Tomas Wood, Donna Martin, Terry Mendleson, Berit Kjos, Bobby Garner, John Francis Walker, the Angry Cheese and many others who directly cite or link to our work.
For over a decade the majority of the anti-Agenda 21 "community" ignored us. Oh well. We persevered without those connections or financial backers, and mainly because of us, the term has worked its way into the most controlled "alternative" news sites and Right and Left Wing groups in the U.S. It's becoming obvious that the communitarian's "best use" of our materials is to steal from our original works and change it just enough, calling it "communism".... so that it leads everyone straight back into the dialectic.
Here's what Rae wrote about Gaia and Mother Earth religion months ago, this past April. She doesn't write one word about the Pachamama or the Communitarian Pachamama Alliance. She uses our definition of Communitarianism and says it's "even theology" although when she learned that it was Communitarian theology remains unclear. http://www.newswithviews.com/Rae/debra213.htm
Rae doesn't mention the lively discussions over Communitarian religion that are popping up in the mainstream press, either. http://nikiraapana.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-communitarian-law-matter-of-faith.html. I can find nothing she's written on the Pachamama or Bolivian Communitarianism either.
Rae's article was published five days prior to nwvs on September 2 at the Conservative Crusader. Our original antithesis to Communitarianism is being subtly changed into a Right Wing Conservative Christian viewpoint. According to Debra Rae, another "dedicated?" anti communitarian researcher:
"Countless terms identify this “new order.” Despite subtle nuances in meanings, most can be used interchangeably to mean the collusion between big business (Super Capitalism) and big government (Communism).
Free enterprise capitalism is distinguished by private ownership of property and resources coupled with competitive free enterprise in supplying goods and services. In contrast, super-capitalism is highly concentrated finance capitalism that tends toward anti-capitalism.
Technically speaking, communism is the final phase and goal of socialism (i.e., big government). Based on the theories of the political philosophers Marx and Engels, communism is socialism distinguished by a planned economy (with common ownership of the means of production) and imposed by revolution." Debra Rae
Here's the main reason I have to strike back at Debra Rae and any others who are twisting our work to fit their Right Wing Christian Cabalist message. Our Anti Communitarian Manifesto poses that Communitarianism, NOT SOCIALISM, is the final phase in the Hegelian Dialectic. We wrote a two part paper showing our theory, sharing the methods we used to prove and/or disprove our thesis. The evidence we used has been called into question and either was removed from our work or the citation was found elsewhere. Everything we write can be vetted, all our sources are valid (and thank God for the WayBack Machine, eh?). We were meticulous in laying out the exact foundation for our anti communitarian position, and there is nothing remotely close to it published anywhere else in the world.
Here's another place where Rae takes a sharp turn away from the more contentious aspects of our Anti Communitarian studies: George C. Lodge's Managing Globalization in the Age of Interdependence was published in 1995. According to Debra Rae, the term communitarianism was coined by George Lodge. I have seen this claim made elsewhere over the years, we have also cited it, but it appears nowhere in our thesis. If it's an established fact, with anything other than Lodge's claim to back it up, then it sucessfully refutes our placement of Amitai Etzioni, the Tree of Life from Zion. Yet the only source that exists for Lodge's claim appears to be Lodge himself, and the writers who cite his claim.
Here's another place where Rae takes a sharp turn away from the more contentious aspects of our Anti Communitarian studies: George C. Lodge's Managing Globalization in the Age of Interdependence was published in 1995. According to Debra Rae, the term communitarianism was coined by George Lodge. I have seen this claim made elsewhere over the years, we have also cited it, but it appears nowhere in our thesis. If it's an established fact, with anything other than Lodge's claim to back it up, then it sucessfully refutes our placement of Amitai Etzioni, the Tree of Life from Zion. Yet the only source that exists for Lodge's claim appears to be Lodge himself, and the writers who cite his claim.
"In Managing Globalization in the Age of Interdependence, Harvard Business School Professor George C. Lodge coined the term, “communitarianism,” for what today has emerged as interdependent globalism. " Debra Rae
Interestingly,
Debra's latest article doesn't mention Dr. Amitai Etzioni, the Father of the Communitarian Network, the Responsive Communitarian, the "Israeli terrorist turned guru" Founder and Director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at GWU. Debra Rae borrows heavily from our published works, she uses our definitions, she includes areas only we've identified, yet she completely leaves out our primary focus. Rae didn't tell you who introduced the term communitarianism into upper academia and English in the late 1980s, and who built an entire movement around it.
In 1995, when Rae tells us Lodge coined the word communitarian, Dr. Amitai Etzioni was already described as:
"Amitai Etzioni is America's communitarian-in-chief, the most prominent figure in the movement to balance rights with responsiblities, shore up the family, and knit together neighborhoods--while keeping the Right at bay. A liberal intellectual worried about the decline of civic virtue in America, Etzioni, who teaches sociology at George Washington University in Washington, DC, holds out a vision of community grounded in dialogue rather than demand, uncoerced community consciousness rather than fundamentalist censorship."
Amitai Etzioni: America's communitarian-in-chief
It's hard to imagine a thinker who disproves the idea of the social prophet as scorned, solitary visionary more than Amitai Etzioni does.
January/February 1995
In 2010, former President Bill Clinton, who's dropping the term Communitarian into speeches across America, was also said to be the "inventor" of the term by journalists in Montreal. The facts about where the term originated are getting as fuzzy as the theory itself, unless you read our account of it, but any semi-serious investigator will at the very least find it was in use at the same time the English began using the term Communist, in 1847.
"While the term communitarian was coined only in the mid- nineteenth century, ideas that are communitarian in nature appear much earlier."
"Communitarianism," Encyclopedia of Community, From the Village to the Virtual World, Vol 1, A-D Karen Christensen and David Levinson, eds. (Sage Publications, 2003) pp. 224-228
That "much earlier," according to ACL research, goes back to the Hebrew's captivity in Egypt.
Debra Rae is also telling her readers that the EU and NAFTA are a "prime example" of communitarianism. Rae provides no evidence or sources for how she came to this determination. She throws out aspects of my research that have absorbed thousands of hours of my time as if it's something everyone knows and needs no sources the back up the claim. But it's not known, it's not established as even part of the theory, and I have fought hard and long to include the Communitarian Justice system in encyclopedia definitions. I have begged, pleaded, prodded and pushed the river on the very basic fact that Communitarianism is also LAW. It is still discounted by most Americans. So how did Debra Rae decide to state it as a fact and feel no need whatsoever to provide a source for that information that was not her?
Debra Rae is also telling her readers that the EU and NAFTA are a "prime example" of communitarianism. Rae provides no evidence or sources for how she came to this determination. She throws out aspects of my research that have absorbed thousands of hours of my time as if it's something everyone knows and needs no sources the back up the claim. But it's not known, it's not established as even part of the theory, and I have fought hard and long to include the Communitarian Justice system in encyclopedia definitions. I have begged, pleaded, prodded and pushed the river on the very basic fact that Communitarianism is also LAW. It is still discounted by most Americans. So how did Debra Rae decide to state it as a fact and feel no need whatsoever to provide a source for that information that was not her?
"A prime example of merged capitalism and communism (communitarianism) evolved from the European Economic Community as the European Union. In turn, American and Pacific Unions, to evolve from NAFTA and APEC respectively, are scheduled to follow. " Debra Rae
As far as I know, I was the first person in the U.S. to publish anything on Communitarian Law that connected UN Agenda 21, the European Union, the WTO and NAFTA as Communitarian Legal Agreements.
The ACL's Communitarian Law page went online in 2003: http://web.archive.org/web/20031224223801/http://nord.twu.net/acl/commlaw.html.
My legal research expanded over nine years to become the most comprehensive list of Communitarian Laws, Attorneys, Schools, and Courts in existence. The first chaper in "2020: Our Common Destiny" is all about Communitarian Law. In fact, our entire book is really all about Communitarian Law! In 2006, I submitted my first article to News With Views, a two part explanation of Communitarian Law called "CAFTA, the EU and Communitarian Law". My articles always list or link to my sources.
"The European Court of
Justice is occassionally referred to as the Communitarian Court of Justice.
CAFTA officials openly discuss using the EU as their model for communitarian
case law. Communitarian Regulations govern the archiving of EU legal documents.
The term communitarian law is in hundreds of online law journals. It's taught in
several foreign law schools and there are degreed law professors of
Communitarian Law. The Jean Monet program sponsors symposiums on it at U.S.
universities. The D.C. Communitarian Network sends out a communitarian law
newsletter. It's a widely understood term in Europe, Central, and South America.
Still, Communitarian Law is so unfamiliar to U.S. Americans (and their
attorneys) that most have never once heard the terms used."
Part Two of my CAFTA article explains a little bit more about why my research must be co-opted and controlled. I include every piece of the dialectic in my work, and Debora Rae took another thing out of her barely veiled plagiarizm, Community Policing:
"In the communitarianized
U.S., former KGB spies and Mossad assassins train cops to use high-powered
technology. Some COPS are military snipers. Cops wear bullet proof vests all the
time now. New COPS have fifty nifty new gadgets hanging all over their uniforms
(while our troops in Iraq send home for 12 gauge shotguns). And, in a major
shift in American public policy regulations, communitarian COPS sit on "citizen"
committees. New cops help rewrite local zoning regulations to incorporate
communitarian laws. Actually, the COPS help suggest the problems. Then they
suggest new ways to get around the individual rights of the problem people,
rights which are too strongly guaranteed by a binding legal contract called the
U.S. Constitution. They write the exact same laws in every community in America
to address the exact same locally identified, citizen suggested problems. They
call it holistic, local, grass roots, "participatory democracy" in action."
CAFTA, the EU and Communitarian Law
After that piece went out to newswithviews readers, two other writers plagiarized it and republished parts as if they wrote it. One of them, Philip Jones, a British ex-cop new to reporting, modified his article at Rense and put quotes and attributions under my words. The other plagiarizer, Dave Hodges, an American at Freedom's Phoenix, did not. So seeing our theory and words come out of other writer's pens is not new to us at all. Akin Akinboyewa took off our names entirely: http://www.scribd.com/doc/37455290/Communitarianism-and-the-Hegelian-Dialect
Here's another place where a portion of our ACL antithesis is quoted, without quotation marks, and no attribution is made to us as the authors of this, posted at rense.com by Anonymous in Dec 2011. This is stolen from the conclusion of What is the Hegelian Dialectic?:
The Communitarian Third Way
A. Constitutional Republic - The United States of America - Government of the people - American's Individual Freedom (1775 - ): power inherent in the people; individual rights of the common born man: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (God given, unalienable, constitutional rights that are national law)
B. Communist government - The former Soviet Union - government of the State - Marx's theory of world communism (1847 - ), power inherent in the state. "For The Common Good of the Party", sacrificing the individual for the good of the state. Frederick Engels revised Hegel's theory to suit his needs, and then passed them on to Karl Marx, who rewrote them and published The Communist Manifesto in 1848.
C. The coming New World Order / Global Governance / Communitarianism / Third Way, etc. - Government of the Community. The Communitarian Third Way (2002 - ) power inherent in the global community: enforced through mandated duties and responsibilities versus individual freedoms. The Third Way: Elitist social justice enacted by sacrificing individual rights. It will institute communitarian laws (by way of facilitators and agents of change), launching state and corporate interventions in private matters; easing the way for confiscation and redistribution of individual wealth in the United States of America. Its elements includes: faith-based initiatives, community governments, community policing, limiting individual's privacy, and the total elimination of individual's right to bear arms.
What's new is the way our research is being twisted into something it is not.
ACL research on Communitarian Law was actually (and quite surprisingly) the most contentious area we looked into, before we began tackling the relgious aspects anyway. I've personally had numerous, long, online debates over the issue of whether Communitarian Law is "real" or not. Everyone from the editors at wikipedia to Christian scholars like Bobby Garner have told me "there is no such thing as communitarian law." Vicky Davis, the highly respected author of channellingreality.com sent me an email a couple months ago and told me EU Communitarian Law evolved naturally and has nothing to do with Etzioni's Communitarianism. I emailed her a free pdf of our book, linked her to a few of my research articles on Communitarian Law, to ACL: Communitarian Law, and I never heard back yet. Until this article was published at newwithviews yesterday, I was under the impression that the Christian Right had completely rejected my position on Communitarian Law and were continuing their blackout. Now I see they're adopting it as if it's their own idea, with a twist.
In a radio interview with Sharon Hughes on September 5, 2012, Debra Rae "broke-apart" Collectivism. Huges set up the dialectical argument between the Republicans and the Democrats, introducing it the same way the religious leaders and various right and left wing "truthers" have been introducing it. The final balance between Individualism and Collectivism is underway. http://www.listen.changingworldviews.com/
At 8 minutes in she defines communitarianism as just one of the many ways to descibe the supranational world order. Then she goes on to explain communitarianism is and I'll have to transcribe it because the way she described it sounded very familiar. Free Market Capitalism is her definition of the original System of American Political Economy. Her entire argument is a repeat of the Religious Right's position. (Hughes has no idea who Aynn Rand was either.) Gorbachev is mentioned, but not as the co-founder of Communitarian Socio-Economics with Amitai Etzioni. Both women stay within the confines of the Right Wing argument against Global Governance. They talk about Communitarianism and then put it smack dab back in the middle of a useless dialectical "debate."
What else can we learn about Debra Rae from Sharon Huges' radio archives? They've done several shows on the Qu'ran, What Every American Needs to Know About the Qu'ran Pt 4, and one called
"WOMANTalk: The Destinies of America & Israel, With: Sharon, Debra Rae & Audrey Russo. Debra Rae &Audrey Russo join Sharon to talk about what scenarios are in America's and Israel's future. Will the U.S. continue to stand with Israel...against Iran? What needs to happen for these nations to fulfill their destinies? Plus, some of the most unbelievable news stories of last month."
Hughes' show is "freeing the minds of the brainwashed masses." (LOL!) At 5:00 Debra Rae quotes Biblical scripture as the basis for OUR COMMON DESTINY with Israel, of our "symbiotic relationship" and insists our destiny is tied to the destiny of Israel.
In a radio interview with Sharon Hughes on September 5, 2012, Debra Rae "broke-apart" Collectivism. Huges set up the dialectical argument between the Republicans and the Democrats, introducing it the same way the religious leaders and various right and left wing "truthers" have been introducing it. The final balance between Individualism and Collectivism is underway. http://www.listen.changingworldviews.com/
At 8 minutes in she defines communitarianism as just one of the many ways to descibe the supranational world order. Then she goes on to explain communitarianism is and I'll have to transcribe it because the way she described it sounded very familiar. Free Market Capitalism is her definition of the original System of American Political Economy. Her entire argument is a repeat of the Religious Right's position. (Hughes has no idea who Aynn Rand was either.) Gorbachev is mentioned, but not as the co-founder of Communitarian Socio-Economics with Amitai Etzioni. Both women stay within the confines of the Right Wing argument against Global Governance. They talk about Communitarianism and then put it smack dab back in the middle of a useless dialectical "debate."
What else can we learn about Debra Rae from Sharon Huges' radio archives? They've done several shows on the Qu'ran, What Every American Needs to Know About the Qu'ran Pt 4, and one called
"WOMANTalk: The Destinies of America & Israel, With: Sharon, Debra Rae & Audrey Russo. Debra Rae &Audrey Russo join Sharon to talk about what scenarios are in America's and Israel's future. Will the U.S. continue to stand with Israel...against Iran? What needs to happen for these nations to fulfill their destinies? Plus, some of the most unbelievable news stories of last month."
Hughes' show is "freeing the minds of the brainwashed masses." (LOL!) At 5:00 Debra Rae quotes Biblical scripture as the basis for OUR COMMON DESTINY with Israel, of our "symbiotic relationship" and insists our destiny is tied to the destiny of Israel.
The ACL is not Right Wing. We are not Christians and we do not quote any religious texts to support one religious view over another. We do not support Zionism, and we have published numerous articles and papers on the role Judeo-Christian Zionism, the Talmud and Israel plays in establishing Etzioni's Communitarian Global Supra National State.
We are not anti Semites because we report all the facts as we find them, and we have written about the Catholics, the Muslims, the Mormons and Methodists who are also promoting the Communitarian synthesis of religions. My focus right now is on the emergence of the Pachamama, the World Mother, She whose roots are a 500 year old "Communitarian" tradition. The synthesis between the religions is a very important piece to us, and it looks like Debra Rae spent a good deal of time researching it. But she crossed the line when she stole ACL ideas and gave them the Zionist slant, which is always to simply take out any references to Zionism, or if that fails, accuse the writer of anti-Semitism.
We know that's what the next round will bring. We have heard it all before. It won't stick. We're not anti-Semitics. We're not anti-Christians. We're not anti-Muslims, we're not anti-Mormons and we're not even anti-Pagans. We're just Anti-Communitarians. We oppose the false conflicts between ideologies that lead to the final Communitarian solution. Our use of the term Anti Communitarian in the USA is backed up with years of copyrighted, dedicated research. What's Debra Rae's research based upon?