Which One is Different?

Take a look at these photographs, all taken along the same stretch of railroad, between Canyon Country and Acton, California. One of them is different from all the others. Can you tell which one is unlike all the rest?

Did you guess that photograph No. 3 is the different one? 

Yes! Photograph No. 3 shows a railroad crossing so dangerous that residents of the neighborhood it has served for almost a century are no longer allowed to cross there.

The others are okay.

I say this tongue in cheek. There has not been a single crossing accident at site No. 3 except for a woman on foot who tried to stop a freight train fifty years ago. You may have found it confusing that all the crossings are at-grade, and are regulated by stop signs. You may have been confused that one of the crossings boasts two tracks, or that some are paved and some are not; but the different one, the dangerous one, the one that fits with the unacknowledged schemes of our public officials, is ours.

        Did you notice that it is no more dangerous than the other crossings?

Actually, Federal studies of railroad crossings have found that the chance of an accident at crossings such as these is insignificant. The real crossing danger occurs at industrial sites.

In the process of "looking out for us," railroad officials created a barrier against our access to the world, which did not please us, but certainly pleased some other people who were simultaneously receiving a piece of land from Los Angeles County at our only other access point.

It will be interesting to discover just how our properties will enrich a bunch of people who don’t need to be any richer. We do not have a problem with them enriching themselves on the many hundreds of acres that have lain unoccupied for generations, but there is something about our living here, our being able to have legal access to the world, our being able to build on our own property, our being able to sell our property for what it is worth, that just gets under the skin of those acquisitive individuals.

The railroad, by the way, is intimately connected to Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors sits on the Metrolink board as well.

But what do the railroad guys get out of this? What do the Supervisors get out of this? What sort of person can face himself and his family when he selectively isolates one neighborhood and lets the others go, just because that one neighborhood is vulnerable to the bullying of public officials? How does that happen, that an entire organization is silenced?

Meantime, other public officials and other powerful members of our larger community stand by, just like the teachers and administrators who stand by and permit bullying on the playgrounds and in the halls of their schools. If you hate bullying, here is a classic example. If you are not powerful enough to intervene you can at least express your disapproval by spreading the word about this blog and our issue. Many already have and we do thank you for your moral support and assistance.

Wouldn’t it be cool if just one big railroad official, just one, stood up and said “Wait, this is wrong, and I am not going to compromise my own ethics to enrich some other guy.”?

We need your help to reach that one person.

Our Plight is Your Plight

Our little rural community of eleven families and numerous bare-land owners has been struggling for the past nine years to survive. First closed in by admitted criminals, we are now legally landlocked by public agencies of the County of Los Angeles and the State of California. We have been fed lies after lies after lies, but have never been given a believable reason for the official maneuvers that have reduced our property values by 80% and more.

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States asserts “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” So consider this measly way around eminent domain: landlock thousands of acres of property, wreck their values, and sit back and wait for everybody to give up, move away and stop paying taxes.

We have tried every remedy we can think of. The Title Insurance companies won a lawsuit over one piece of the necessary easement, only to be confronted by three more blockages created by agencies of Los Angeles County and the State of California. We will be recounting strategies we have tried, in posts on this blog. We anticipate that readers will suggest others.

We Americans are recovering from a hard kick to the heart. A realization has been forced upon us, in a strikingly rude way, that our elected representatives do not represent us, that they are not at all concerned with the welfare of the American People.

It doesn’t matter what your politics are. Maybe you support the idea of universal health care, maybe you do not. Maybe you believe in rights for the as-yet-unborn, maybe you believe in a woman’s right to control her own body. Maybe you insist that guns be controlled, maybe you hold to our right to bear arms.

It doesn’t matter! And it doesn’t matter what our elected representatives believe. You don’t enforce your opinion by making trouble for the American People.  

Like it or not, we are all at risk together. If the recent shutdown did not demonstrate that, then you might as well stop reading. But the rest of us, the vast majority of the American People, now recognize that too many elected representatives have found too many ways to abuse their power. If we can’t change national politics right now, we can start in our neighborhoods.

Most abusers of the public good scurry for cover when the light goes on. We beg your participation as follows:

1.       Our story is too long to tell on one page. We will tell the story in regular installments on this blog. We ask you to follow, comment, and subscribe.

2.       At some point, and it might not be long from now, you will understand the injustice of our plight. We ask that when you do, you do more than just read. Jot a note or an email to let our oppressors know that you are on to them. Turn others on to our blog.

3.       It is important that all of us realize that this abuse of power and neglect of the People’s well-being is epidemic. If we can demonstrate that informed, participating citizens have the wherewithal to shame public officials into decency, we win a victory for all. We expect that other cases all over America will come to light and be brought to our readers’ attention. We pledge to study and support the causes of others and ask that our readers do the same.

Think of all the good that united Americans have accomplished! National policies have changed. The very consciousness of the People has evolved. When I was a kid in New Jersey, the idea of a Black or female bus driver was unthinkable, just to pose one astounding example. Together we can do amazing things. These are the grass roots.

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