Homeowner Associations - the New Colonialism in America

April 23, 2006

By Ed Bentley

One of the more incongrous sights of the 20th. century was that of a skinny old man walking along the streets of Delhi every morning, clad only in a loin cloth. After his 4 miles walk, he would climb up the ornate steps of the British royal palace, pass the uniformed guards standing unflinchingly to attention, and then sit down with the Governor of India for hours negotiating the emancipation of India from British rule.

And he succeeded!

The man, of course, is Mahatma Gandhi - the lawyer, religious leader, saint and politician all combined in one, who led Einstein to assert that it is hard to believe that such a man ever walked the face of the earth.

When he was asked in 1931 by an American reporter what was the secret of his success, he replied "soul-force". "What is that?" asked the reporter. Gandhi replied in two words - "love and truth".

Homeowners who live in homeowner associations are analogous to the Indians whose country was taken by a colonial power. (For approximately 250 years, this colonial power was actually a private company - the British East India Company)

In homeowner associations, the colonial powers are the lawyers and other vendors who take over the citizens' homes with the connivance of politicians and other government leaders.

Homeowners are swaddled and suffocated with rules, laws, regulations, statutes, codes and the infamous CCRs. The colonial power levies fines, fees, assessments, penalties. Homeowners are put in architectural straightjackets so that they can be put in financial prisons, and the sword of foreclosure hangs perilously over each homeowner's head.

Homeowners have to know that they are surrounded by a sea of lies - from lawyers, the politicians(their lackeys), managers, gardeners, maintenance people, city officials.

Lying is a way of life for them. From ordinary every day conversation to court filings, the lies roll off their tongues and their computers as if they were well-greased skids. Their immune systems have become immune to the truth. Lying is ordinary, as natural as the polluted air.

Gandhi knew all this.

But he also knew that truth, like water, is the only way to cleanse filth, and that eventually, even the mightiest cliffs tumble to the waves, as did the British empire.

Homeowners can both learn from and be inspired by what Gandhi did. He did not sit idly by. He pushed and poked and prodded and marched until the British recognized the inevitable.

Homeowners, likewise, must push and poke and prod and march until the lawyers realize that homeowners will not allow them to live in their homes, either literally or figuratively. Homeowners can parade outside lawyers' offices, call the media, and hound them down the nights and days with complaints to the bar and the judicial council.Homeowners can run for office, either on the local, state or national level.

Is it worth it? The answer is contained in another question - is freedom worth it?

The answer has to be a resounding yes.

Truth will win. If a nagging little voice has any doubts, remember who coined the phrase "You cannot fight city hall". City hall, of course. If they can get you to believe that victory is not possible, they have won.

Gandhi won. So can homeowners. Let the march begin!

Ed Bentley
AHRC News Services

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Related link: • Wisdom of Ghandi