This is the first of a series of articles on Agenda 21.
The Bellingham TEA Party (Link HERE.) forums, both for City and County candidates have included questions about this Agenda 21, and my initial response was... "Well if the TEA Party is all worried about it, then its probably nothing to worry about."
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Agenda 21 was an actual thing, and not just the product of the feverish imaginations of the TEA Party Patriots...
So, it is an actual thing, but is there something to worry about?
Instead of accepting the TEA Party frame on this story at face value (which, roughly paraphrased, is "OH MY GOD, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!"), I'm going to go straight to the source.
I'm not saying I don't trust the TEA Party's intentions... but I am saying I don't trust the TEA Party's judgment...
The link to the Agenda 21 text is HERE.
I'm going to break this document down into manageable chunks and try and find out what it is about this document that has caused such a terminal case of panty bunchification among the TEA Party Patriots.
And since I like company with my misery, I'm taking you with me.
The first thing I learned was that this Agenda 21 has been around for a long, long time.
This is consistent with the TEA Party's signature glacial response time to crises. It took about eight years for the TEA Party to sound the alarm that we were running massive public debt at the Federal level.
So how long was this threat of Agenda 21 looming in the tall grass before the TEA Party alerted us to this clear and present danger?
Nineteen years.
Agenda 21 was adopted in 1992. Almost two decades ago.
From the UN link on Agenda 21:
Being alarmed now about what the United Nations did almost twenty years is like being alarmed now about what Sean Penn did almost twenty years ago.
So, on those grounds alone, color me skeptical.
This better be blood curdlingly chilling stuff. By the time I'm done with it, I expect to be able to imagine a Tom Clancy novel that is actually worth adapting to a major motion picture.
We shall see.
One last point before I go...
The concern about Agenda 21 appears to actually be a concern over the United Nations.
I have a problem with that.
I'm not a big fan of the United Nations myself, which seems to me to be little more than a corporate bureaucratic fart lighting machine operating on an epic scale. However, the problem with criticism of the United Nations from the USA is that we, the United States, are on the Board of Directors of the United Nations. The UN has a VIP sky box that is reserved for five members, and the United States is one of those members.
The United States criticizing the U.N. is like Steve Jobs criticizing Apple Computer. [Full disclosure: I'm a Mac guy.]
Conservatives have had ample opportunity to get the U.S. out of the United Nations. For a significant chunk of George W. Bush's presidency he had a conservative majority in both houses of Congress. If the Conservative movement in the United States was really worried about the U.N. then they had plenty of opportunity and time to do something about it.
Like the national debt, this is a concern that only rears its head when a Democrat is occupying the White House. This leads me to further cast a jaundiced and skeptical eye to the danger posed by Agenda 21.
Next Venti post... The Preamble of Agenda 21.
The Bellingham TEA Party (Link HERE.) forums, both for City and County candidates have included questions about this Agenda 21, and my initial response was... "Well if the TEA Party is all worried about it, then its probably nothing to worry about."
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Agenda 21 was an actual thing, and not just the product of the feverish imaginations of the TEA Party Patriots...
So, it is an actual thing, but is there something to worry about?
Instead of accepting the TEA Party frame on this story at face value (which, roughly paraphrased, is "OH MY GOD, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!"), I'm going to go straight to the source.
I'm not saying I don't trust the TEA Party's intentions... but I am saying I don't trust the TEA Party's judgment...
The link to the Agenda 21 text is HERE.
I'm going to break this document down into manageable chunks and try and find out what it is about this document that has caused such a terminal case of panty bunchification among the TEA Party Patriots.
And since I like company with my misery, I'm taking you with me.
The first thing I learned was that this Agenda 21 has been around for a long, long time.
This is consistent with the TEA Party's signature glacial response time to crises. It took about eight years for the TEA Party to sound the alarm that we were running massive public debt at the Federal level.
So how long was this threat of Agenda 21 looming in the tall grass before the TEA Party alerted us to this clear and present danger?
Nineteen years.
Agenda 21 was adopted in 1992. Almost two decades ago.
From the UN link on Agenda 21:
Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the Statement of principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests were adopted by more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992.
Being alarmed now about what the United Nations did almost twenty years is like being alarmed now about what Sean Penn did almost twenty years ago.
So, on those grounds alone, color me skeptical.
This better be blood curdlingly chilling stuff. By the time I'm done with it, I expect to be able to imagine a Tom Clancy novel that is actually worth adapting to a major motion picture.
We shall see.
One last point before I go...
The concern about Agenda 21 appears to actually be a concern over the United Nations.
I have a problem with that.
I'm not a big fan of the United Nations myself, which seems to me to be little more than a corporate bureaucratic fart lighting machine operating on an epic scale. However, the problem with criticism of the United Nations from the USA is that we, the United States, are on the Board of Directors of the United Nations. The UN has a VIP sky box that is reserved for five members, and the United States is one of those members.
The United States criticizing the U.N. is like Steve Jobs criticizing Apple Computer. [Full disclosure: I'm a Mac guy.]
Conservatives have had ample opportunity to get the U.S. out of the United Nations. For a significant chunk of George W. Bush's presidency he had a conservative majority in both houses of Congress. If the Conservative movement in the United States was really worried about the U.N. then they had plenty of opportunity and time to do something about it.
Like the national debt, this is a concern that only rears its head when a Democrat is occupying the White House. This leads me to further cast a jaundiced and skeptical eye to the danger posed by Agenda 21.
Next Venti post... The Preamble of Agenda 21.
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