The Freeman 1989 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

14Letter tothe COInInissionby Robert HellamEditors' Note: The following letter was sent tothe Chairman of the Economic DevelopmentCommission of Seaside, California. The Commissionwas formed as an advisory body, composedofunpaid volunteer citizens appointed bythe City Council, to represent the views of thepublic and the Council to the Economic DevelopmentDepartment ofthe City ofSeaside.June 20, 1988Dear Tom:This is not a letter of resignation. There is noneed for me to resign: my term on the Commissionexpires June 30, and, although I ampleased that you have asked me to stay on, Ihave chosen not to seek reappointment. I supposeyou could call this a letter of expiration,then; but I prefer to say a letter of explanation,and I hope you will share this with the othercommissioners and staff.I welcome what I see as a more active (I donot say/ "pro-active") Commission, ready toassert its rightful role, but I believe I haveserved long enough. I have been on the Commissionfor two and a half years, and have expressedmy views as forcefully as I could wheneverthe moment was right and I could get aword in. (The minutes often have not reflectedmy comments, for reasons we have discussed.)Sometimes my words have met with a hostilereaction, sometimes with mild impatience,sometimes with amused tolerance. Often, theyhave been dismissed as "mere" philosophy.Mr. Hellam is a long-time resident ofSeaside, California,and a free-lance writer.There is no such thing as "mere" philosophy,in my opinion. The axioms that we carrywith us to any enterprise will color everythingthat we do. Just as a married couple who do riotview divorce as one of their options is morelikely to stay together, so a city government thatdoes not see confiscation of private property asa proper activity is less likely to violate therights of its citizens.Rights are possessed by the people, and onlyby the people as individual flesh-and-blood humanbeings. Collective rights are a myth.Rights inhere in the people from birth, grantedby God, not by government. Government hasno rights at all, only specific, limited, enumeratedpowers granted to it by the people. Ourancestors thought that these were self-evidenttruths.Since the only proper role ofgovernment is toprotect the sovereign people's rights to life, liberty,and property, it follows that any governmentthat takes away those rights without dueprocess of law is destructive of the very ends itwas established to achieve. The phrase "dueprocess of law" has become twisted in manycases into an excuse to justify whatever a governmentalbody wants to do, and today "dueprocess" is often regarded as meaning no morethan providing advance notice of whatever adverseaction the legally constituted authoritieswant to take. This makes the phrase meaningless,and makes the Constitution a dead letter.What was once self-evident is now hardly evidentat all.The supremacy of the people must be respected,not only in words but in actions. The