Lots of Lots
Mary Cashiola’s article (In the Bluff, April 12th issue) is interesting in regards to the county’s dilemma of excess property. We basically “rent” the property. Try not paying property taxes and see who has really claimed your land!
Marxists have sought to disguise their revolutions under the cover of “agrarian reform,” a redistribution of land, the most thorough form of revolution. Under this guise, Mao was able to popularize his revolution in both China and among American liberals. The Ukraine, once the breadbasket of Europe under the czars, cannot now sustain itself. When the state owns all the land, the people are reduced not only to political servitude but to starvation, as well.
The basis of the property tax is the totalitarian concept that the state owns all the land. The tax is the rent that the nominal owner pays to that government for the privilege of using its land. This arrangement is known as “serfdom.” They say it ended in the 1700s, but in America, we have simply replaced the feudal lord with the state. Supreme Court chief justice John Marshall penned these words in the 1819 McCulloch v. Maryland case: “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” A property tax is an attempt by the state to destroy the family. If one improves one’s property, it results in a higher tax. This acts as a disincentive to improve the condition of one’s property. That which controls your property and wealth controls you.
Charles Gillihan Memphis
Don “Ho” Imus
Yesterday, my wife and I ate dinner at the Midtown Huey’s. About halfway through our meal, a young woman behind me asked for our attention. She paid my wife a compliment on her hair, and for the remainder of the meal we had a pleasant conversation with this stranger and her friend. Afterward, we parted ways, no longer strangers, commenting that we hoped to see them around town again. What is interesting is that these two strangers were black; my wife and I are white. What is more interesting is that the ambience of this scene was saturated with the resounding message of the Don Imus story, coming down from every television: “Deep down, blacks and whites still don’t like each other.”
Whether it’s communicated casually by a slick shock-jock, indirectly by the extreme volume of media coverage given to this fiasco, or directly by the perpetual wound-salting of people like Al Sharpton, it’s loud and clear. I’m tired of it. I think most people are tired of it, and I think most people would like to see Sharpton and most of the major media channels fired along with Imus, who I feel got a bad rap. Sharpton suggested that Imus is guilty of racism, even though he didn’t intend it, drawing the analogy that if a man doesn’t mean to kill someone but does anyway, he is still guilty of murder.
It would seem to me that a man like Imus, who has done things like broadcasting G.E. Patterson sermons, vocally supported Harold Ford Jr., and brought national attention to things like the Sean Bell murder trial and the Blind Boys of Alabama, in addition to more general humanitarian efforts like the Imus Ranch for children with cancer and raising huge sums of money for sickle cell anemia research, could be given the benefit of the doubt.
Nathan Raab
Memphis
The trouble with being at the top is that Don Imus feels that his success grants him the right to publicly kick minorities. He’s make these insulting comments, then apologizes, and, when the dust clears, will go right back to these evil ways. It is very clear that Imus will continue to use the public’s airwaves to spew his hate.
It is about time that Imus & Co. feel a bit of wrath from minority groups, who were mugged regularly on this program. Imus’ insensitivity was magnified by his making his ugly comment on April 4th, when another racist ended the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. It is a pleasure to see the end of this bully’s broadcast career.
Leonard Blakely
Memphis
Have you listened to the rap music that floods the airwaves, with lyrics referring to black girls as “ho’s”? And then there are the black stand-up comics on cable TV doing the same thing. Yet, when Imus uses it on his program, the blacks want him fired.
Something is wrong here. The only mistake Imus made was appearing with the racist Sharpton on his radio show. The only persons he should have apologized to were the Rutgers basketball team.
Joe Mercer
Memphis