Selected Articles from the LAND Newsletter
President's Report
By Chuck Damschen, Past LAND President
Editor’s note: Past LAND President Chuck Damschen wrote a stirring opening ceremony for the 2002 Annual Meeting. It’s reprinted here in lieu of the President’s Report.
“Taking your future into your hands!” It sounds like an ambitious theme, doesn’t it? We present this theme, not as a promise but, as a challenge! So much of the future is unpredictable and uncontrollable that it is vitally important for us to recognize and seize any opportunity to positively affect it.
Property rights is one area where our actions today play a big part in what we will be allowed to do tomorrow. Ownership of property is one of the fundamental rights of a system of government that promotes free enterprise and individual freedom. The founders of our great nation understood that and took action that not only shaped their future, but the future of the world for generations to come.
As the Colonies prepared to do battle over ‘taxation without representation,’ it’s obvious that the right to own property and to retain the ‘rights of ownership’ to that property were fundamental to ‘representation.’ In his book ‘Property and Freedom,’ author Bernard Siegan captures the sentiment of the Framers: “For most people, freedom means that they will be able to retain the fruits of their labor, knowledge, ingenuity, and industry. It makes meaningful that portion of life devoted to physical or mental endeavors. What does it mean to labor, innovate, or create if the material rewards of those efforts can be arbitrarily taken away by the state? The existence of such governmental powers would destroy the incentive to work, save, invest, and plan for the future."
For the Framers of our Constitution taking their future into their hands came at a high cost. Many Colonial soldiers paid with their lives and the signers of the Declaration of Independence paid through the loss of their possessions. But maybe the high cost of their newly gained freedoms helped inspire their diligent watch over them. Again quoting from Bernard Siegan, “During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Madison asserted that in civilized society the preservation of property, as well as other personal rights, was an essential object of the law. Later he wrote: “Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well as that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a JUST government, which IMPARTIALLY secures to every man, whatever is his OWN.”
“As a member of the First Congress, Madison proposed that the Constitution be amended to contain a declaratory statement 'that government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists, among other things, of the right of acquiring and using property'."
As I look around at the directors and officers of LAND that I’ve had the privilege of working with over the past nine years I am reminded of the hard work and sacrifice that so many of you offered for a cause that you truly believe in. I assure each member here today that you can be proud of your directors and this organization. They have proven time and time again what can be done when you are willing to stand up for what you believe in and know is right.
So we challenge you as current or prospective LAND members to ‘Take the Future Into Your Hands” by getting involved. I hope that our convention today will inspire you to join our efforts to shape the future in a positive way. I think you will be encouraged by what we’ve accomplished in years past and by our future plans.
One of the things that makes this country the best is the fact that you and I can still have some say in government. If we don’t exercise that right we will lose it. If we wait for someone else to do it, we may find they’ve already done it, and not to our benefit.
As members of LAND and citizens of the USA we have a duty to stand up for the ideals and principles set forth by our Founding Fathers. We should implement the means provided for us to take part in ‘government by the people.’ Yes, it will require a sacrifice of your time and perhaps some money. But these are relatively small in comparison to the losses that will be suffered if we do nothing. LAND definitely intends to take our future into our hands!
Thank you.
