The War on Gardens Continues

When Julie Bass's lawyer went to the courthouse to file a motion regarding the case against her "renegade" front yard gardening activities, he was informed that the charges against her for the garden had been dropped.  Yay!  Right?  Wrong.  Now, they've slapped her with some trumped up charges for dog licenses that she's already paid and she still has a hearing on July 26, but now for the dog license misdemeanor charge (did I mention that there is no unlicensed dog at her house now and the only way that they would even know there ever was unlicensed dogs on her property was if Oak Park a-holes were looking for something to charge her with since her dogs are well taken care of and don't run loose in the neighborhood?).  Not only that, but since Julie never had her day in court or was officially cleared of "wrongdoing" (seriously, is a garden ever "wrongdoing?"), they can bring the charges back up once the media spotlight has cleared back up.  Tricky bastards, aren't they?  Let's not make it that easy on them, shall we?  We've been doing a great job with the calls and emails (not so much with the death threats and such though.  That's too much and I wouldn't be surprised if that's part of why they are being such...looking for a nice word....bureaucrats.  Okay, I couldn't come up with an actual nice word, but that one is at least allowed on television), so let's keep the pressure on until they are leaving the Bass family alone for good!  For your convenience, here is the contact info for key players in this nonsense:

Mayor:
Gerald E. Naftaly 248.691.7410      gnaftaly@att.net

City Council:  all phone calls go to 248.691.7410
Angela Diggs Jackson   adjack@comcast.net
Paul Levine   paul4oakpark@yahoo.com
Emily Duplessis   duplessis2@aol.com

Oakland County Prosecutor:

Jessica R. Cooper   248-858-0656  info@oaklandprosecutor.org

Meanwhile, up in Canada, a man is currently facing the prospect of six months in jail for his lovely organic mini-farm on his 2.5 acres!  Dirk Becker of Lantzville, British Columbia has been cited with violating a bylaw against property owners letting their land become "unsightly" and has been ordered to "remove the piles of soil and manure from the property".  Again, the whole thing is rather ridiculous, to put it nicely, and you can click here to see how insane it is, including seeing pictures of before he took ownership of a property that was basically a gravel pit and the gorgeous farm he turned it into that apparently city officials find "unsightly."  Either they have vocabulary issues on par with Kevin Rulkowski's definition of "suitable" or they have something against plant matter!  Now, I'm not too familiar with how the Canadian political system works, but I did find a general office number for the District of Lantzville (250-390-4006) and a general email being listed as district@lantzville.ca, so we might want to give them a heads up that food growing is a good thing and plants are far more beautiful than a barren wasteland, eh?  (I'm from Michigan, so I can do the whole "eh?" thing too.  It isn't a Canada joke, really...although that is kind of funny)

As this insane war on gardens continues, it reiterates the point I made a couple weeks ago that there should be a recognized Right to Garden everywhere.  I listed the contact info, or at least how to find the contact info for US Congress people on my original Right to Garden post, so if you wanted to pursue making this a federal law in the United States, that would be a good place to get started. Canadians, since this seems to be a problem for you too, you might want to get in touch with your government as well!

Mother of 6 Threatened With Jail Time for Front Yard Garden

There are other words for it than "ridiculous", but I really do make an effort to keep this a fairly family friendly blog and keep the cussing out of it, but this time, it really would be warranted.  That lady, Julie Bass, over in Oak Park, MI that I've been going on and on about has been informed by the city idiots that they are planning on taking this case all the way, so she is facing possible jail time of 93 days for growing vegetables in her own front yard!

For those that haven't been following this story, Oak Park has an ordinance that states that front yards must contain "suitable plant material" and, apparently, the official Oak Park dictionary, or at least what they are using to prosecute from, defines "suitable" as "common" so they are saying that this

is not "suitable" because most people have the economic and environmental drain of boring green grass on their lawns, rather than something practical, educational, healthy, and tasty on their lawns like the Bass family does.  Well, they didn't put it exactly that way, but that's what they are claiming.

A possible 93 days in jail for this:

 and this

 and this

 Do you even see any weeds here?  If you are a weed sympathizer, then maybe I can see an issue, since, clearly, they've all been brutally torn out by the roots and cast away somewhere else not visible in these pictures.  But, if you're looking for a lawn to prosecute, I think maybe they need to be looking elsewhere!  Like maybe a lawn that contains the illegal kind of weed!  There is no crime happening here, yet, for some reason, they want to play the bad guys and pick on a family just trying to eat healthy cheaply!

*sigh*  What is this once great nation coming to?

Fortunately, all our rights haven't eroded away yet.  We can still write emails, make phone calls, and send letters (or dictionaries, since it sounds like they need one in Oak Park!) to the city officials responsible for this mess (note: the mess is not in Julie Bass's well maintained garden in her front lawn.  It is clearly in their brains and, for now, legal documents).  Maybe send them pictures of your front yard garden.  If you don't have a front yard garden, maybe now would be a good time to plant one.  Or borrow mine as an example.  Or google "front yard gardens" and see what all pops up and send them some of those pictures!

For your convenience, here is the cast of troublemakers, er, city officials, and their contact information:

City Planner:
Kevin Rulkowski
248.691.7450 
krulkowski@ci.oak-park.mi.us     

City Manager (Mr. Rulkowski's boss):
Rick Fox
248.691.7406 
rfox@ci.oak-park.mi.us
     
Mayor:
Gerald E. Naftaly
248.691.7410      
gnaftaly@att.net


Mayor Pro Tem:
Michael M. Seligson
248.691.7410
mmseligson@comcast.net

City Council:
all phone calls go to 248.691.7410

Angela Diggs Jackson
adjack@comcast.net

Paul Levine
paul4oakpark@yahoo.com

Emily Duplessis
duplessis2@aol.com

All snail mail goes to the person you are mailing it to
c/o City of Oak Park
13600 Oak Park Blvd
Oak Park, MI 48237

If you are going to send emails, you can make it easiest on yourself by addressing it to Mr. Rulkowski, since he seems to be the evil mastermind main person that Julie Bass has been having to deal with and he's the moron guy that was quoted on the news as not knowing what "suitable" meant and then just "cc"ing the rest of the addresses.

Now let's let them know that they need to drop this stupid case...and then I'll be able to go back to mostly blogging about happy things like yummy recipes and what's growing in my own yard, front and back!

(Oh, and it probably wouldn't hurt to drop a line to your US Representative and Senators, letting them know about the current situation and that you think there should be a federal Right to Garden protection law on the books to help keep things like this from happening in the future!)

Defending Your Freedoms

Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans!

A lot of people talk about our independence as if it is something secure, something we can count on being there forever.  We can't.  If we don't stick up for our freedoms, they can be eroded away until nothing is left.

You think it can't happen?  It is happening right now.  Take the case of Maryanne Godboldo from Detroit, MI whose daughter was kidnapped by the government because she refused to pump her full of drugs that were making her sicker.  Look at all the areas where you can't legally collect your own rainwater (although apparently this is improving in a lot of places, thanks to people challenging the laws).  Look at Julie Bass of Oak Park, MI who is currently facing misdemeanor charges for growing food in her own front yard, since they claim it violates the city's ordinance that front yards must contain "suitable plant material".

These are all freedoms that are being stolen, bit by bit.  There are literally millions of examples that I could cite of freedoms disappearing daily.  I just list these ones because they directly affect our pocketbooks as well as our freedom.

It is our patriotic duty as Americans to do something about this.

Write letters to officials and politicians responsible for making these laws.  Actively campaign for or at least vote for politicians that support our freedoms.  Vote out the ones that don't.  Support things like the Right to Garden legislation I proposed a couple posts ago to protect our rights and make it harder for them to sneak them away.

So what am I doing this Independence Day?  Having a cook-out with my family here at the Trailer Park Homestead, going to see a nice small town parade, watching some fireworks....and getting a dictionary ready to mail to the city planner of Oak Park, since apparently he doesn't know what the definition of "suitable" is (hint: he thinks it means "common").

If anyone else would like to send photos of front yard vegetable gardens, to demonstrate how suitable vegetables are for front yard plant materials, or dictionaries to the city planner of Oak Park, so they can look up the definition of "suitable", the address is:

Kevin Rulkowski, City Planner
City of Oak Park
13600 Oak Park Blvd
Oak Park, MI 48237