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LIBERTY OR SUSTAINABLEDEVELOPMENT?
 
Michael Shaw is a licensed attorney, and Certified Public Accountant. He has made a career in real estate having developed a multi state chain of self storage projects. He is President of 
Freedom Advocates.org 
and speaks on how Sustainable Development is designed to transform America. He is also proprietor of 
Liberty Garden 
, a native plant oasis located on the central coast of California. He is a litigant in cases against Santa Cruz and Alameda Counties in connection with the application of Sustainable policy.Web Site: 
FreedomAdvocates.org 
&
Liberty Garden
 
E-Mail: 
Shaw@FreedomAdvocates.org 
 
By Michael ShawJune 30, 2008NewsWithViews.com
Chapter 1: Understanding Liberty
 Who decides the terms of your life? Is it you, the individual? Or is it the state? Society hasfaced this core issue since the beginning of time.If we resolve this in favor of individual rights to dictate the terms of one’s life, society mustunderstand this:
Respecting individual dignity requires that we respect the private property of others.
These ideas are as old as the Ten Commandments which prohibit:1. Stealing.2. Coveting the property of another.These principles came to fruition in society with the foundation of the United States ofAmerica in the constitution that guide and govern this country. In these institutions, theconcept of self-governance is understood to be a necessary prerequisite to leading a lifethat is one’s own.Americans know that something is wrong today. The American system of liberty is not beingmaintained. To fully understand this issue:
•
We must learn to understand the nature of the problem,
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We must learn what caused it.
 
To do the necessary learning, we start with an understanding of what could be: We mustunderstand the basics of liberty.Liberty presumes that the scope of government powers must be strictly limited and the lawmust be equally applied to every citizen. In other words, for liberty to exist, governmentalfavoritism must be eliminated.Freedom means individuals:
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Can act on their own authority.
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Have authority limited by their legal responsibility not to infringe on other’s right to life,liberty, and property.
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Have moral responsibility that limits their scope of rightful action.
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Have a social responsibility to work toward mutual benefits and productive societal gains.Building a free society promotes the development of individual conscience. People in a freesociety, with nurture in a family environment, can become who they are. This systempromotes general welfare. Healthy individual character development and positive individualpersonality expression require a developed conscience.A person whose character is based on conscience is fully capable of constructive self-expression and of associating productively with others. The freedom to associate and thefreedom to express are prerequisites to a person’s natural right to trade freely with others.Genuine free trade creates improvement as each party works toward mutual benefit. Theresult is a general rise to society.Liberty and freedom promote and are a prerequisite to peace. However, genuine peace canonly exist in free societies where civic responsibility is truly voluntary. Peace requires asystem that is based on liberty.Genuine peace cannot exist in a slave or serf society.Liberty requires a self governance system. A self governance system of government iscentered on the individual and is dependent on the family. Civilized government protectsindividual rights by exercising powers that are enumerated and limited. The enumeratedpowers primary design is to protect a citizen’s natural or unalienable right to life, liberty, andproperty. The alternative form of government uses force to direct the terms of individual life.When government’s force is not strictly enumerated and limited, ‘peace’ is no more than asymptom of society’s fear of government.For genuine peace to exist, the right to determine the terms of one’s own life requires thatwe respect the property of others even if that is adverse to our own interests. Consider thisexample: A person wants to build a home on their land and neighbors object claiming thatthe new house causes ‘view shed pollution’.Americans need to understand that if we focus on protecting our property value at theexpense of another’s property right, we all end up without property values or property rights.
 
Respecting what others want to do with their lives and their property, providing one does notcreate a real nuisance for another, provides each person the opportunity to lead their ownlife.George Washington said; “private property and freedom are inseparable.” Most Americanshave lost an understanding of private property. Too many people think that private propertyis a thing; land, farm, maybe a car or a home. That is not the essence of private property.Private property is much more than a thing. It is the relationship between a person and athing. This includes the possession, use and right to depose of that thing. Propertyrepresents the liberty of a person’s action. The use of property and liberty of action is anecessary corollary to having your own life.Let me illustrate:
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Your hands are private property.
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My private property includes, perhaps begins with my hand.
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I choose my hand’s action.
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Thus private property begins with our very person.
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Our person is private property.
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Private property includes a person’s thoughts.
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Private property includes a person’s expressions.Private property includes our person, our thoughts and our expression. But it is goes beyondthat. We have private property in our action. Private action is private property.At times, our private action results in creating a thing. Other times our private actionprovides the opportunity to trade with others for that we want.However, private property is much more than a thing which we hold title to. Our rights toprivate property incorporate our liberties. These are essential to living a private life.Consider what happens when the use of something that is your private property is takenfrom you by an illegitimate use of government force. This example could include your land,home, business, bank account, book or the use of your hand. If our private physical propertyor its use can be taken from us, our lives, our action, our expression and our thinkingbecome much different.People in the Soviet Union did not act in a way that benefited society because there was nobenefit for the individual to engage in productive action. If the benefit of acting in your own
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