Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who suffer from the terrorist attack on the United States.

I must admit I struggled with writing a column on property rights, considering the events of September 11. Then I realized that those who defend property rights and those who defend our nation do the same civic duty: uphold the 225 year old Constitution of the United States of America.

The more I am involved in public policy, the more I marvel at the wisdom of our Constitution. The framers of that document knew first hand the downfalls of human nature. They knew how power in the hands of too few people can corrupt, so they specifically created a weak office of presidency with checks and balances to make sure no branch of the Government became too powerful.

The document limits Federal ownership of property to Post Offices, Post Roads (interstate highways), Government buildings and military installations.

How can a Congress, consisting of 500+ members who have each sworn to uphold the Constitution, vote for such legislation as CARA, which allows even further unconstitutional land purchases by the Federal Government?

How can we get so far from defending our Constitution that we have Federal surveillance checking on individual US citizens to see if they have a drainage ditch two inches too deep on their own property?

How can the Federal Government spend so many man hours investigating whether a farmer profited from farm payments when he might have disturbed a wetland or killed an animal listed as endangered and not investigate terrorists who had been living in this country for years planning an attack that has crippled our nation?

I wonder if history will look upon all the Federal attention given to regulate Swampbuster and the Endangered Species Act at the expense of our national defense as treasonous?