let’s say i wanted to stir up a pot?
let’s say that pot contained a little bit of freedom and a dash of renegade.
suppose we added a generous heap of property rights and a healthy amount of respect for individuals who care enough to be part of a solution.
dare to suspend your disbelief long enough to dream with me.
let’s suppose we could find just the right people to get behind some radical notions.
like the idea that it’s ok to have a garden in your front yard.
even one that grows organic veggies.
who in politics do you think would get behind a bill that protects people like me, and adam guerrero, and the guy in missouri, and that poor poor lady in tulsa who want to have front yard gardens?
because dynamic dave and good ole grant and janet too- you all touched on a darn good idea!
and i think i would LOVE to run with it!
and i think i would LOVE to get back in contact with mike adams and his crew, and even make some new contacts (maybe glen beck and his ilk?) and spread the word if this looks like a project that could pick up steam…
so who do YOU think is worth getting in contact with?
if you supply the names, and give me some inkling as to why you think they would get behind it, i will get in touch with them and report back to you about what they say…
(and please PLEASE can someone get it up on the facebook page that i would love to hear from them on this, but they will have to come over to the blog if they want me to see their comments and be able to respond- thanks!!!)
Jun 24, 2012 @ 07:42:43
Hmmm….
There seems to be a dearth of politicians who believe in personal liberty.
We have those that embrace specific amendments, while attempting to pass insane laws that prohibit the exercise of other rights.
This almost feels like a Libertarian platform issue… Like Ron Paul needs another cause to embrace…
It seems obvious that if we could discourage the planting of turf, and encourage the planting of wildflowers and food, people would see a healthier result almost immediately… There would be more pollinators, people would be out in their yards, enjoying the flowers, harvesting the vegetables, instead of watching tv…
Instead of banning soda, why not ban turf? Think about the capacity for healthier Americans, eating fresh produce, and getting exercise… I can only see good results from switching the front lawn over to something sensible.
Jun 24, 2012 @ 14:53:21
Rand Paul
Jun 25, 2012 @ 02:44:07
That is PRECISELY why I WILL be running for City Council District 6, here in Van Nuys, CA! They finally repealed the law here, and I am going to bring this issue up to City councils, and whoever will listen to me!
My front lawn has now been removed, and 4 garden boxes are coming in for organic veggies! Who said edible landscaping has to be ugly? Most are so curbalicious ( yes, that’s my term) they would give Beverly Hills water hogs a run for their money! Julie- I’m not a reporter any more- but I know what it takes to get laws passed. Even if I move to Idaho, that is one ordinance I will make sure that stupid archaic laws are thrown out of the books! It all starts right here, in the front lawn! Hope nuggets ( the chicken I named) is doing well! We’re going to keep up this fight- organics are healthier, cheaper to grow than lawn ( yesi including attificial), and can help those who cannot make ends meet sell some produce to neighbors, to help tgeir pocket book, lessen green house gases by not needing to truck in produce, and create erosion control! Yes- I mean business! Pictures soon to come! P.s. I did speak to President Obama about organic gardening, and the great job his wife has done!
Jun 25, 2012 @ 16:49:21
woooooooooooohooooooooooooooo!!! so you’ve been busy since we last heard from you!! good for you! let me know if there is anything i can post here for you- i almost wish i could afford part-time residence in cali so i could vote for you! good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jun 25, 2012 @ 22:14:02
Good luck to you! That guy who is interviewed in the Channel 7 report is lol man….how do people like that get to where they are?
Jun 26, 2012 @ 11:47:25
appointed by the mayor- go figure!
Jun 26, 2012 @ 11:48:25
just a by the way- you know this is all resolved, right? i don’t want you stressing over nothing!
Jul 11, 2012 @ 18:05:03
What you are looking for is someone who combines environmentalism with personal liberty. The person who best exemplifies that is Rosanne Barr (yes, that Rosanne Barr), who came in second for the Green Party nomination. She plans on running for president as an independent under the Green Tea banner. I am not making any of this up!
http://www.roseanneforpresident2012.org/
Jul 11, 2012 @ 19:32:53
aw, neon vincent- you rock, and i really miss hearing from you! and sorry if you’ve been getting the spam recently from our personal account…
Jul 11, 2012 @ 21:19:53
Thank you. And, yes, I did get some of the spam this morning. It looked like a phishing scam. I’ll be sure to email you at your new account.
Jul 12, 2012 @ 00:16:48
awesome- so do you think i should take the plunge and email roseanne barr?
Aug 01, 2012 @ 11:09:56
I’ve been spinning this post around in my head since I read it shortly after it was posted. I wanted to comment but couldn’t quite figure out how to articulate what I wanted to say. This morning I awoke to find that our house in socially-conservative Warren, Michigan had been again paintball-vandalized, and it hit me.
Like you, we have been harassed by municipal code enforcement over our vegetable garden, in our case a backyard garden. The city’s issue with us isn’t the food gardening per se but the sheet composting operation we build over it every fall. We obtain those tall brown “lawn waste” bags from our neighbors and spread it out about a foot thick, grass and leaves, lasagna style. One autumn, during the short time window between gathering bags and laying it all out we got a $itation for “trash on property.” We’ve gotten dinged every year since Fouts got elected mayor. Much to our chagrin, he was re-elected by a humongous landslide, along with his entire Tea Party slate for city council.
When I heard about your case in Oak Park in the local media, I immediately looked you up, signed online petitions in support of your cause (which of course I still support) and discovered your blog, which I very much enjoy. Let’s say it adds much-needed ideological diversity to my reading list. It seems you’re a home-schooler, a churchgoer, a property rights activist, a gun-toter, someone who contrasts with the scenery in Seattle, ex-leftist and a lot of other cool but sometimes scary things. From your blog posts I form a mental image of someone who is probably all around nice, but maybe would disapprove of me and Josie if she knew much about us (for starters, transsexual, lesbian, way-left-of-center, atheist (in my case, and gnostic in Josie’s). Then again, maybe you wouldn’t. And hay, some of my best friends are conservatives.
But admittedly, mostly “business conservatives” who opt out of the Culture Wars. For reasons that are probably only my own fault I hesitate to join hands in alliance, even in a focused, single-issue campaign. I’ve also found the F.A.C.E.OFF. movement, which in terms of single issues, is right on target, but their literature is laced with all kinds of muscular patriotism, derogatory references to “green goons” (which I suspect would include me), UN-directed conspiracy theories, etc. Now of course there are also groups whose gardening and local policy agenda is directly relevant to our struggles, but who are also stylistically compatible rather than incompatible, for example, Food Not Lawns.
I think organizations like F.A.C.E.OFF. and Food Not Lawns, and individuals like you and me, can form alliances for change if we can agree to certain ground rules; most important of those being keeping a single-issue focus.
Even with a single-issue campaign, there is the matter of how you frame the issue. The right-of-center framing (which seems to be where you’re coming from, but I could be wrong) sees it essentially as a property rights issue. The left-of-center framing (at least the way I frame the issue) is that what we’re up against primarily is an attitude based on the assumption that curb appeal is good for “property values” and nonconformists, especially in front yard arrangement, are bad for curb appeal. Beyond heavy-handed curb appeal politics is frank classism. Whenever I find myself in a discussion of the code enforcement issue in cyberspace or meatspace, take your pick, there’s inevitably at least one voice on the other side that talks about “low class” people with their junk cars and all that. Not infrequently are racial epithets heard in this context. I read the intent of legislated curb appeal to be a socio-economic filter—someone too poor to maintain a lawn, too poor to pay retail for their groceries, too poor to have a presentable car, etc., are too poor to live in the suburbs. I see the emphasis on curb appeal and “property values” as a way of rolling out the unwelcome mat, and I see its proponents (rightly or wrongly) as people who have frank contempt for the below-middle-class population. So the problem as I see it is, yes, too little respect for property rights, but also too much prioritizing the interests (which sometimes get framed as rights) of (some) property owners over overall civil liberties, such as freedom of expression. My logic is that if I don’t have a right to a return on my job-hunting investment (the world doesn’t owe you a job, as countless right wingers have pounded into my skull) then a suburban homeowner doesn’t have a right to a return on their real estate investment. “Property values,” or more correctly, property prices, should be a matter for the market, not the city council.
Well, anyway, that’s my rant. To answer your question, I would love to get in contact with you, and mike adams and his crew, and anyone else who simply wants the freedom to pursue their outdoor interests, for the purpose of mounting an ideologically diverse, but issue focused campaign for the rights of gardeners and urban farmers. A political zoo.
Solidarity!
Aug 02, 2012 @ 18:58:34
ok- first off, let me say that you are awesome for taking the time to really think about what i said and to type out such a long and considered response! i really enjoyed reading it (twice!) and i will try to address your points:
thanks so much for signing the petitions and supporting me in the early days of the garden debacle, and for sticking with me in spite of the fact that some of what i say probably makes you cringe. it takes a real adult (and i don’t say that at all sarcastically- 100% truth!) to be able to stomach another viewpoint, and i have to say that i’m not always a big enough person to do it myself. so kudos to you for that!
i’m kind of miffed about why your city would harass you about what’s in your backyard. do they do spot checks? did someone complain? can they really control what’s blowing around at any given time, or do they just do this kind of thing to harass and annoy people who they want to pick on? you can file a freedom of information act at your city clerk’s office and ask to see all of the citations that were given out for “trash in the yard” or whatever they dinged you for (beware that they will try to bury you in paperwork and also charge you for the privledge…) and see if it looks like pure harassment or if this is a real thing they are trying to do as some kid of campaign to beautify warren or something (in the back yard??? questionable…) just to throw this out there, it’s kinda weird to me that a tea party person would be all about compromising your property rights in your own backyard over something that is easily explained- like composting bags into your garden… sounds like a petty code enforcer or nosy neighbor making a big racket that they are trying to pacify maybe????
onto me: i am TOTALLY nice
and i don’t disapprove of you at all. your business is your business and i would be a pretty big hypocrite to say otherwise. how could i consceince my having a right to believe in God but you not having the right to be an atheist and josie not having the right to be an agnostic? that would be a darn shame if i thought only i had a right to believe what i wanted but you guys didn’t… and as far as things in the bedroom or under your clothes- ditto. sheesh, that’s all pretty private stuff that’s just as private between me and my husband as between you and josie, right? and my best friend is not only a leftie, but she’s a canadian to boot, so how about that! 
(granted, we don’t usually discuss politics unless i’m asking her to clarify the left-wing position on something for me. she’s extremely well-informed, as is her husband, so when i need to cut through the rhetoric and get to the brass tacks of an issue, i usually ask her to explain it to me…) i’m wondering-seriously- i know you said this kind of tongue-in-cheek, but i’ve heard this many times and i am truly curious- why would someone who holds my views scare you? i know that people tend to get wigged out by right-wing people, and i’m so curious- what do you think we think that’s makes someone like me scary to somene like you?
i tried to look up F.A.C.E. OFF, but all i could find was a movie, which i’ve seen and i know isn’t what you’re talking about- so feel free to explain that one and/or send me a link or two…
as far as the whole “curb appeal” thing, you are so right! it’s interesting- i’ve been reading over some of the old comments from websites and message boards from last summer, and while most of the comments are supportive there are the sprinklings of exactly what you are saying. every once in a while someone would chime in with things like, “what about her neighbor’s property rights?” which would turn into a discussion of property values being affected by my front yard garden versus the property values around my former neighborhood with things like abandoned houses and overgrown lots and peeling paint and ugly garden statues and such. and someone would inevitably call me white trash- sometimes because i had a chair on my porch or something like that- or sometimes just because- and on and on it went… but you are very correct that the idea of property values versus property rights is often an excuse for a thinly veiled (if at all veiled) attack on the lower middle class. the entire concept of a front lawn (and i think they discuss this in food not lawns, as well as in other places) was to show ‘look how wealthy we are! we have land to waste! we can put this land to no good use whatsoever! we will grow this useless stuff on it and maintain it for absolutely no reason!’ and the fact that people now are so well trained that they are actually offended when you don’t buy into that and walk off the cliff like the rest of the lemmings just kind of makes me alternately sigh/gag/scream/cry/die a little inside/inspires me to want to fight and educate people.
so, solidarity indeed! i hope to post my letter (or at least my draft of my letter, which of course i am hoping everyone on the blog will help me to tweak…) some time in the next few days. you can always feel free to post here as much as you want, and if you ever want to email me privately, you can do that too- at thegardenrenegade at gmail.com
i’ll be looking forward to your response- and send my regards to josie!
Aug 02, 2012 @ 22:50:40
F.A.C.E.OFF. stands for “Fight Against Code Enforcement OFFice.” There are numerous websites with this designation, most with a regional emphasis. I don’t know whether the various F.A.C.E.OFF.’s are somehow affiliated or federated. They all contain a “shouty” style of writing with words they want to emphasize rendered in either red or blue (out of patriotism, perhaps?) Here are links for a few of them:
* F.A.C.E.OFF. Movement
* California F.A.C.E.OFF.
* F.A.C.E.Off Brevard
* New York F.A.C.E.OFF.
* Michigan F.A.C.E.OFF.
I’m quite sure there are others. Seek and ye shall find.
Josie is a fan. Sez say hi to the chux.
Aug 03, 2012 @ 03:25:32
wow- what interesting sites! thanks for the links. i only checked out two of them so far (the national and the michigan)- who would have believed how much petty nonsense goes on every single day, huh??? josie’s a fan of this blog? if so, way cool!
i will definitely pass on regards to the chux! ok- off to bed to try to get some sleep before the blue angels fly over my house again tomorrow morning. very exciting but very noisy 
and, for what it’s worth, you are clearly a better internet seeker than i am 