Are You an Owner or a Trespasser?

It's humor, but there's a biting irony. Do you see it?

An estate owner to a trespasser: "Get off my property!"

Trespasser: "Where did you get it?"

Owner: "From my father."

Trespasser: "Where did he get it?"

"From his father."

"Where did he get it?"

"From his father."

"Where did he get it?"

"He fought for it!"

Trespasser: "Well then, I'll fight you for it."

~ anonymous, (a viral internet humor item.)

Much of the news we exchange opinions about here on OpEdNews.com pivots on our unexamined assumptions about ownership. You think you own your home? Try putting up a new cell tower in your yard; or stop paying on your mortgage; or neglect a few tax payments; or lose a personal injury suit. You own only what your community agrees to support your ownership of. Your ownership is more of a stewardship with benefits.

How about the water in the stream that flows through your town? Can the town up stream dump their raw sewage in it? How about the air you breathe? Can you neighbor burn his used tires upwind of you?

Silly questions. Of course there are limits on individual ownership. We have laws about all that stuff and we enforce those laws with the full might of the government. But scale up your thinking to a national level. What rights do the various sovereign states that the Colorado River flows through have to the water? What rights do the companies that own mountains in West Virginia have to tear off the top, extract coal, and allow the rain to leach toxins into rivers and streams? What rights do power companies have to draw in fresh air and exhaust carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds?

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