The vitality of the speakers at the Eleventh Annual Conference, caught in this photo montage, imbued their messages about private property rights with such intensity of purpose that the conference will be long remembered. Beginning at the left top photo, Roger Pilon, J.D., Ph.D., of Cato Institute pointed out, “Kelo has animated the public more than any other case in recent years.” Proceeding across, Thomas J. Borelli, Ph.D., of Action Fund Management in New York City warned of “the new politics of capitalism for the goals of socialism.” As shareholders, his fund can resist the hijacking of capitalism.
John Berlau of Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington,
D.C., and author of Eco-Freaks, which he autographed at the conference,
somehow created sardonic humor from stories of everyday environmental
extremism, but also told of tragedy, as from the prohibition of
cell phone towers in much of the New York’s North Country.
Lawrence Kogan, J.D., of the Institute for Trade, Standards, and
Sustainable Development in Princeton, N.J., explained the potential
of the Law of the Sea Treaty to assert international land-use
regulation in the U.S. to prevent ocean pollution. Carol LaGrasse
told how one person’s effort was significant in precipitating
the governor’s veto of a bill that would have caused serious
problems in obtaining title insurance in New York State.
Jason Knox, Staffer, House Natural Resources Committee, spoke
of how the other side is getting smart pitting hikers and cyclers
against oil and gas producers and grazing interests against hunters;
“Do not ignore them just because they’re not coming
after you.” Devlen Mackey, president of the Highlands Conservation
Association, told how the northern New Jersey farmers are organizing
to resist regional state zoning.
Peyton Knight from The National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C., told how National Heritage Areas are used to establish regional preservation zoning. Marshall Sayegh, who co-founded the commercial property owners association in Gualala, California, explained how private environmental organizations are mobilized much like the privateers of old to strip people of their private property rights.
Teresa Platt, the executive director of the Fur Commission USA, in Coronado, California, said that groups that raise money on animal welfare should be required to spend money for that purpose, not on fomenting property destruction. John S. Marwell of Shamberg Marwell Davis and Hollis in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., described the successful resistance to the joint Sierra Club/New York State efforts to intrude on the Adirondack League Club’s private property by expanding the definition of navigable waterways. Ellen McClay from Cottonwood, Arizona, author of In The Presence of Our Enemies, gave her first-hand memories about UNESCO and the imposition of socialism in American schools back to the fifties.
Raymond J. Keating of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for Newsday on Long Island, who told how eminent domain is freely used to take small businesses for sports complexes, hotels, and even the expansion of Columbia University. Robert J. Smith, Adjunct Environmental Scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, warned about the Oberstar/Feingold bill to impose federal regulation over every bit of surface water and wetland in the country, under the guise of “restoring” the Clean Water Act. Finally, William Perry Pendley is being introduced to deliver the keynote address.
Conference Participants
Below on this page are photos of some of our participants, listening
and engaged in discussions with the speakers during the conference.
Mike Podgurski from Long Island is shown first, followed by Ruth
and Nate Dickinson, and next is Richard Ogsbury. Next is Brian
Bishop, a national leader from Rhode Island, and then Amy and
Lawrence Lloyd, who were the joint recipients of PRFA’s 2006
“New York State Property Rights Defender Award.” Columnist
Carola Solomonoff is next, and after her appears another family
group who came to the conference.
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