03-06-2003, 08:32 PM
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garden police gone wild?
In article ,
wrote:
"Charlie" wrote:
I've never heard of restrictions on this sort of thing. America really
puzzles me sometimes.
I'm sure other countries have some communities like this. A variety of
planned communities have sprung up over the last 20-30. This is where
a small twon is virtually planned. Everything matches, there are color
schemes. More afluent commuities try to do similar things. Trust me
this only happens in well-to-do areas, often within sometimes gated
communities with clearly defined property limits. People pay to live
in these manicured suburbias. They have commitees that run them. Older
natural neighborhoods don't have such extremes. While town/city
ordances might adopt certain limitations on grass height to avoid
fires it would never apply to city-owned properties especially those
in poorer parts of town since they are the ones the city will allow to
be regularly overgrown with 5 foot high wild grasses and weeds.
These communities began for racist reasons, as when the idea of Civil
Rights for more than just white people got a strong if belated foothold in
America, a few court cases settled certain issues & it became illegal to
discriminate in housing. But a loophole was built into the law, & remains
the Communities regulated by Home Owner Associations CAN define the
age, religion, social status, & race of "appropriate" members permitted to
buy houses within the housing enclave -- & no matter how agregiously
prejudiced, it's perfectly legal, nothing those gawdamn queers & darkies
or whoever's left out can do to stop it, neener neener. The loophole makes
it legal to keep grandparents from letting their kids or grandchildren
move in when a housing community outlaws anyone under the age of 60; it
keeps Jews out of Christian housing districts; it can even be "gated" with
a guard at the front gate to protect middleclass whities from "crime"
which is a code-word for "******s." It makes it legal to be upfront &
openly judgemental about why the mixed-race family is rejected from buying
into the given community, & if they think they should have the right to
sue over discrimination, tough.
If this origin has changed slightly over time, & such enclaves are no
longer fully dominated by the initial purpose to keep racism legal, it is
only different insofar as there are now Chinese housing associations here
in Washington, & lots of them in California wherein only middleclass Latin
Americans are permitted to buy homes. So we're working toward equal
opportunity appartied.
So trying to force people not to paint their house pink or have a
basketball hoop over the garage door or redefining a hunter as inherently
evil BECAUSE he's a hunter & therefore suitably harrassed by Neighbors
United, up to & including anonymous reports to the police that he's a
child molester -- all that is just the tip of an iceberg made of hate,
among unsophisticated surburbanoids for whom "Property Values" is a
scare-word disguising the real purpose, & is synonymous with
"Intolerance."
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/
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