The Libertarian Party of Georgia believes in freedom. We trust the average citizen is capable of self-government. But the newest action by the Los Angeles, California City Council makes us wonder if maybe the citizens of LA have lost the taste for freedom.
Just last month the LA City Council passed a racist nanny-state ordinance that banned any new fast-food restaurants from opening in the city’s minority section, thereby violating citizens’ basic right and responsibility to decide what to eat. Yesterday (8/13/08) the city council decided to limit the property rights of Lowe’s and Home Depot. While one Councilman was absent, the other 14 voted unanimously to pass this ordinance.
Beginning in 30 days, home improvement stores of at least 100,000 square feet (i.e., Lowe’s and Home Depot) will be required to baby-sit the day laborers who congregate nearby, seeking work from the store’s customers. “The people of the city of Los Angeles do ordain” (as the ordinance reads) that these stores now are in the employment agency business and must provide a separate area to provide “adequate shelter from the weather,” and to make available tables and chairs, trash cans, drinking water, and toilet facilities. One can only be grateful that the new ordinance’s mandate doesn’t include day care and free lunches.
The Libertarian Party of Georgia unequivocally supports the right of property owners to use — or not use — their property as they see fit. Our platform states “We…hold that the owners of property have the full right to control, use, dispose of, or in any manner enjoy, their property without interference, until and unless the exercise of their control infringes the valid rights of others.” If the City of Los Angeles thinks day laborers looking for work outside a store have a valid right to toilets and chairs, let the city provide them! We believe it is not the responsibility of Lowe’s or Home Depot to do anything at all for people who are not customers.
As freedom lovers, we believe the City Council of Los Angeles is out of control and should be resisted by all lawful means. We hope the residents will still remember these outrages in 2009 and vote for individual freedom and personal responsibility by taking a broom to the incumbents.
If they choose to re-elect the same petty tyrants who ignore the real rights of residents and property owners, we can only conclude that the citizens of Los Angeles have the government they want — and the government they deserve. We quote colonial patriot Samuel Adams: “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom — go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!”
