Sevier County and Highway 66 Expansion

TDOT has decided not to purchase right aways for Sevier County's Highway 66 expansion project. I wrote the following letter to the Editor of The MountainPress.

As far as the expansion of highway 66 is concerned I am with TDOT and their disdain for the Highway 66 Expansion Project. As a taxpayer I want TDOT to steward my tax dollars and that does not include giving those dollars to greedy, land owners in Sevier County or any other county. Sevier County developers claiming the price of land has increased greatly is not reason enough for TDOT to give them my tax dollars. If, as The Mountain Press says “An expansion of Highway 66 is needed sooner rather than later,” let Sevier County expand it. Why should people in middle and west Tennessee or even in Knox County care how bad the traffic is in Sevier County? Why should I care when fixing the problem will make millionaires out of some good-ole-boys? Remember the “responsible” stewardship of tax dollars Pigeon Forge exhibited when they gave $17.5 million of those tax dollars for 35 acres leaving the developers with a cool 275% profit? This purchase left those developers with 75 acres at a remaining cost to them of $2.5 million dollars. An auction had set the market price of the land at a little less than $182,000 per acre but PF decided it was worth $500,000 an acre. If TDOT over pays like that, I hope someone is arrested and goes to jail. I encourage TDOT to drop the allocation of dollars for the purchase of land in Sevier County until the various governmental bodies in Sevier County begin to show some responsibility.

Original purchase was 110 acres for $20,000,000 for an average per acre cost or $181,818.

Pigeon Forge purchased 35 acres for $17,500,000 for an average cost of $500,000.

Leaving the owners with 75 acres at a remaining cost to them of $2,500,000 for an average of $33,333 per acre.















Reference your Editorial, TDOT doesn’t play nice with Sevier, Thursday June 22, 2006.

Civility is always in style, but as we all know some local politicians do not understand that as The Mountain Press addressed in your Editorial a few weeks or months back. As far as the expansion of highway 66 is concerned I am with TDOT and their disdain for the Highway 66 Expansion Project. As a taxpayer I want TDOT to steward my tax dollars and that does not include giving those dollars to greedy, land owners in Sevier County or any other county. Sevier County developers claiming the price of land has increased greatly is not reason enough for TDOT to give them my tax dollars. If, as The Mountain Press says “An expansion of Highway 66 is needed sooner rather than later,” let Sevier County expand it. Why should people in middle and west Tennessee or even in Knox County care how bad the traffic is in Sevier County? Why should I care when fixing the problem will make millionaires out of some good-ole-boys? Remember the “responsible” stewardship of tax dollars Pigeon Forge exhibited when they gave $17.5 million of those tax dollars for 35 acres leaving the developers with a cool 275% profit? This purchase left those developers with 75 acres at a remaining cost to them of $2.5 million dollars. An auction had set the market price of the land at a little less than $182,000 per acre but PF decided it was worth $500,000 an acre. If TDOT over pays like that, I hope someone is arrested and goes to jail. I encourage TDOT to drop the allocation of dollars for the purchase of land in Sevier County until the various governmental bodies in Sevier County begin to show some responsibility.

110
$20,000,000
$181,818




35
$17,500,000
$500,000
32%
88%
275%

75
$2,500,000
$33,333
68%
13%
18%

Stress on Preachers Wives

The concept of a congregation hiring a preacher and paying him to preach to the saved, teach classes, publish a bulletin, visit the sick, etc is not found in the Bible, making it non-biblical. A congregation hiring a preacher to preach to the unsaved is a biblical concept. Being big on commands, examples, and necessary inferences why does the church follow the non-biblical and generally reject the biblical?

It is unreasonable for a congregation to bring a stranger into their midst and isolate his wife, requiring her to be perfect and if she develops close friends, accuse her of favoritism. It is permissible for local ladies to elect not to teach a childrens class or a ladies class but for a preachers wife to make the same decision is not to be tolerated


Walk a mile in the wife's shoes and then let those without sin cast the first stone.

The Rights of the People Come From God

With the anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence on the horizon, we should keep ever before us that in that Declaration our founders asserted that the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle the people to exist equal among the Powers of the Earth. That the people’s Creator endows them with certain unalienable Rights among which are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and with the firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, the signers pledged their Lives, Fortunes and sacred Honor. When the people deny or fail to acknowledge God they undermine the very basis on which the existence of their country depends.

The Rights of the people come from God, not from man. What man gives, man can take away. What God gives, no man can take away. If there is no God, man’s authority controls the people. Religion and morality are essential to the existence of the United States. National morality cannot exist without religious principle. Without morals, laws cannot exist. Nothing is wrong. Anything and everything is permissible. The practice of morality is necessary for the well-being of Society.

The framers of the Constitution never conceived of government being allowed to interfere with the free exercise of the Christian religion in public life. They expected the longstanding religious heritage would remain as the foundation of the Republic the existence of which depends on the public institutions of religion, Christian religion.

For the past fifty years or so individuals with the assistance of the Judicial System have steadily worked to be free from authority and restraint and to rewrite law and make lawlessness legal!

Christian religion, in its purity, is the source of all genuine freedom in government. No government can exist and be durable without the principles of Christian religion. This July 4th I encourage everyone to read the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. The people go into exile for lack of knowledge.

The Christian Religion and Morals permit Government

The premise of our Declaration of Independence is that the people’s Creator endows them with certain unalienable Rights among which are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Anytime the people deny or fail to acknowledge God they are undermining the very basis on which the existence of their country depends. The Declaration also says the people believe the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them to exist equal among the Powers of the Earth.

The Rights of the people come from God, not from man. What man gives, man can take away. What God gives, no man can take away. If there is no God, man’s authority controls the people. Religion and morality are essential to the existence of the United States. National morality cannot exist without religious principle. Without morals, laws cannot exist. Nothing is wrong. Anything and everything is permissible. The practice of morality is necessary for the well-being of Society. God has put eternity into man’s heart. The founders of the United States of America were bound by the laws of God as the rules of their conduct and they confessed the same.

Anarchy: disorder especially political or social; Lack of government in a society:
Anarchism: a doctrine that all government and laws should be abolished;

Christian religion, in its purity, is the source of all genuine freedom in government. No government can exist and be durable without the principles of the Christian religion.

The framers of the Constitution never conceived of government being allowed to interfere with the free exercise of the Christian religion in public life. They expected the longstanding religious heritage would remain as the foundation of the Republic. Setting aside “thou shall not commit adultery” and replacing it with homosexual marriage will destroy America. The existence of the republic depends on the public institutions of religion, Christian religion.

For the forty years past individuals with the assistance of the Judicial System have steadily worked to be free from authority and restraint and to rewrite law and make lawlessness legal!

Future of America?

In his book Sexual Anarchy – The Moral Implosion of America, Dave Miller refers to the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940 and makes some claims. I looked into his claims and was able to verifiy his assertions. The disconnects between our country's laws are sometimes mind-boggling.

Anarchy is defined:

• Absence of any form of political authority;
• Political disorder and confusion; and
• Absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose.
  

Sorry for the convoluted wording. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act – 1940 provides for the protection of two species of eagles by prohibiting taking, possessing, selling, purchasing, bartering, offering to sell, purchasing or bartering, transporting, exporting or importing, at any time or in any manner any bald eagle commonly known as the American eagle or any golden eagle, alive or dead, or any part, nest, or egg thereof of the foregoing eagles.

Definitions as used in this subchapter:

• ''Whoever'' includes also associations, partnerships, and corporations;
• ''Take'' includes also pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, molest or disturb;
• ‘‘Transport'' includes also ship, convey, carry, or transport by any means whatever, and deliver or receive or cause to be delivered or received for such shipment, conveyance, carriage, or transportation.

Felony convictions of the Act carry a maximum of $250,000 or two years of imprisonment (or five years under the Lace Act of 2002.

This is the point---A person may be fined $250,000 and put in prison for five years for collecting eagle eggs but Federal law permits the same person to abort an unborn human infant. Pre-born eagles have a greater value to society than pre-born humans do.

During my verification I found a couple of other articles. In a magazine article dated October 2, 2005 Dorothy Seese writes: However, just as Rome tired of its deities and began to ignore them, Americans of the late 19th and 20th centuries tired of God's absolute rules, considered them restrictive and regressive, and thus began to chip away at the foundational Christian principles of our founders' government. The Supreme Court was used/misused to end prayer in schools, approve of abortion as a woman's "constitutional right" and is now faced with whether it shall redefine marriage to include any union. Even Rome, with its rampant homosexuality and pedophilia, never attempted to redefine marriage! While marriages were often matters of money and convenience, they were always between man and woman. In that regard, the Romans were just one baby step ahead of the United States and its redefinition of marriage.

In another book ”When Nations Die” Jim Nelson asks the question: “Has America come to a similar point as Rome before it fell?” and lists 10 symptoms:

1. Increase in lawlessness
2. Loss of economic discipline
3. Rising bureaucracy
4. Decline in education
5. Weakening of cultural foundations
6. Loss of respect for traditions
7. Increase in materialism
8. Rise in immorality
9. Decay of religious belief
10. Devaluing of human life

He then adds: (Rome) slowly declined as wealth, power, and passion took first place in the Roman heart. Once again, society became preoccupied with sensuality. Moral decadence set in, involving adultery and homosexuality, thus a breakdown of the Roman family. Eventually Roman citizens lost interest in piety and dignity and focused on day-to-day "living" and instant gratification.

What process played an important role in propagating the spread of moral decay? People became addicted to the amphitheater to watch — violence, nudity and sports. Citizens worshipped the gladiators who fought in these arenas. Consequently, the Romans lost respect for human life. Originally punishable by death, abortion became common, even encouraged. Violence became epidemic. Gang violence was rampant in the large cities.

Makes you wonder if it is possible to see our future..