Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

August 2, 2012

For a decade, Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, Oregon, has been collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his property.  He has accumulated the water primarily for fire protection ? a wise and timely precaution.

In 1925, a local water use ordinance was enacted creating a local resource soviet called the Medford Water Commission. That measure says nothing about the collection of snow runoff or rainwater. Harrington has injured nobody, and the local resource soviet has no legal authority regarding the water that precipitated on his property. 

In July, a circuit court ruled that Harrington had committed nine misdemeanors by creating what it described as three ?illegal reservoirs? on his property.  He has been sentenced to thirty days in jail, three years? probation, and a fine of $1,500 ? for making legal and judicious use of a natural resource that pertains to his own property.

As Harrington points out, the same government that is punishing him for storing water is preparing to ?open the valves and really waste all the water ? at the start of peak fire season.? This doesn?t scandalize those who believe in government ownership of resources ? whether in the Stalin-era USSR, or the increasingly Sovietized USA.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.