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The primary forces behind the Parkway are the federal Department of
Transportation and the National Park Service. What's happening in Hinton
isn't about eminent domain. It's about destroying homes so that drivers can
look at trees. Consider now how the issue of property rights and the plight
of families about to lose their homes are critical to every homeowner in
America.
Branded an outside agitator by the Mayor, I suggest that the real "outside
agitators" are coming in from Washington, DC to take the property of Hinton
residents. The claim is that Hinton needs the highway for economic reasons,
but the real reason Hinton and other West Virginia communities began to
experience economic difficulty was because radical environmentalists were
instrumental in closing many of the State's coal mines.
Joining hands with them are men like West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall.
According to the League of Conservation Voters, Congressman Rahall has voted
with radical environmentalists 79% of the time, more than any other
Congressman from West Virginia. Hinton is simply one of their victims, but
there are hundreds of communities across the nation dying because of policies
dictated from Washington, D.C.
Now the same culprits who helped to kill Hinton's industry are claiming the
New River Parkway is a magic answer to restoring prosperity, but a look at
the map of where the Parkway will go reveals it is on the opposite side of
the river from Hinton. In preparation for the Parkway, the National Park
Service is busy buying up property located along the route. NPS Acting
Superintendent Henry Law told some residents along the river road that the
agency would "not only get all of the private property along the road, they
would take every business too."
At a May 7th meeting, again and again I listened to officials assure those
attending that "they" had no intention of taking any land outside of the
actual space needed to build the roadway. This is a deceitful tactic.
Technically these officials were telling the truth, except they left out the
"rest of the story." Once the roadway is built it will be turned over to the
National Park Service. NPS will then complete the project by implementing its
"view sheds" and imposing conservation easements. Once done, there will be no
private homes and no private businesses along the New River Parkway.
The property owners don't want to lose their homes and for that they are
being called "extremists." I went to Hinton because no locally elected
official would stand up for the property owners. The American Policy Center
works with a coalition of property rights activists from across the nation
and we are fighting back against government polices that have turned their
back on homeowners, ranchers, farmers and all others who want to possess a
part of the American dream.
Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report and president of
the American Policy Center, a Warrenton, Virginia grass-roots think tank. The
Center maintains an Internet site at www.americanpolicy.org.
Published by permission.
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