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<p><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; border-collapse: separate; font: 16px 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 20px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; -webkit-box-shadow: none; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; -webkit-box-shadow: none; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img src="images/stories/OAKI-logo.png" border="0" alt="The Oak Initiative" align="left" />Excerpted from The Oak Initiative Bulletin #22 <br />March 20, 2012<br />By Debra Durstewitz</strong></p>
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<p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; border-collapse: separate; font: 16px 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; -webkit-box-shadow: none; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">Constitutional Protection for Landowners</strong></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: 16px 'Times New Roman'; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; COLOR: #000000; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 20px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 13px">
<p style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px; OUTLINE-COLOR: ; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 13px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; -webkit-box-shadow: none">   Third, this nation must move back to the place where we honor the right of an individual or family to own land. Landowners must be able to pass that land down to their descendants, despite their ability to pay taxes. Land and home ownership prevents people from winding up homeless and on welfare programs. It allows even desperate people the opportunity to have a roof over their heads, to grow their own food, rent rooms, or pasture for income.</p>
<p style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px; OUTLINE-COLOR: ; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 13px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; -webkit-box-shadow: none">    It was infuriating that Nancy Pelosi turned the passage of the Affordable Care Act (i.e. Obamacare) into a civil rights issue, when, in this great and free nation, citizens can have their land confiscated  and sold from underneath them if they can’t afford to pay property taxes. Clearly, our Founders would have considered the right to own land and to pass that ownership as an inheritance as one of the most fundamental of rights, and we must honor that.</p>
<p style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px; OUTLINE-COLOR: ; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 13px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; -webkit-box-shadow: none">    During the subprime mortgage crisis that started in 2008, millions of people lost their homes and moved in with their friends or families or even lived out of their automobiles. I would propose that land ownership is such a sacred and inalienable right that there should be legislation which prevents banks from foreclosing on properties that have paid up to 70 percent of their principal. In these cases, the bank would be forced to renegotiate their mortgages so that the payments were affordable enough for the homeowners that they can keep their parcels.</p>
<p style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px; OUTLINE-COLOR: ; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 13px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; -webkit-box-shadow: none">    Last, our Founders would be horrified by the way our government has accumulated debt, to the hindering of our national security, and the burdening of our posterity. We must pass a balanced budget amendment so that we can honor our children’s right to live in a nation that has not compromised its national defense by indebting itself to potential national enemies. We must correct our course now so that the next generation will not be forced to have a huge portion of their paycheck pay off the follies of their elders.</p>
<p style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px; OUTLINE-COLOR: ; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 13px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; -webkit-box-shadow: none"><a href="http://www.theoakinitiative.org/oak-leaf-22">Read entire post at The Oak Initiative &gt;&gt;&gt;</a></p>
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