Sawgrass Rebellion Comes to Life This Friday.

Date: Friday, October 18th (Homestead on the 19th)
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Place: 18th Ave SE, Naples Florida (map)
Program: Live music, food, speakers, auctions, yard sale.

Larry Pratt, President of Gun Owners of America, and J.J. Johnson C.E.O. and Editor in Chief of The Sierra Times are the latest additions to our lineup of those who will be speaking at the event. Our local radio station will be broadcasting from the premises and there will be a strong media presence including television, print and broadcast.

The Jarbridge Shovel Brigade and the Klamath Bucket Brigade will be there in force, after traveling thousands of miles and putting their lives on hold. They've spent thousands of dollars of their own money to make this happen. Their reward being the satisfaction of helping their neighbors and trying to make our country a better place to live. They put their money where their mouth is and it's up to us not to let them down.

After the Friday event, we will gather Saturday for a convoy across alligator alley to head to Homestead where farmers and homeowners are being intentionally flooded by out of control , un-elected and unaccountable government agencies who have plans to bulldoze large portions of their community, in direct violation of congressional legislation as defined in NEPA. No exaggeration here folks. This is well documented and yes, it really is happening in your country

The property rights movement is growing by the day. Don't miss this opportunity to push back at the enviro-barons in our government and elsewhere who use the environment as a club in an attempt mercilessly smash our neighbors, our constitution, our way of life and our conservative voting blocks out of existence. They told us to build it and they would come. We built it, the rest is up to you.

1. First and foremost, SHOW UP and bring everybody you can with you. Take an early vacation, or a one day fly-in. Failure is not an option. If the Brits can bring over 400,000 to their Fox Hunting rally, we can do the same. Show the world what we're made of.

2. If you can't show up, tell everyone you know about this. Spread the good news. Ping this thread to everyone, email your lists whatever. You know what to do, spread the word.

3. Write to our politicians. HERE you'll find a list of all the politicians who are involved in this. Be polite but firm. FReep the hell out of these guys. Communities are being run over in a wholesale fashion, we must put a stop to this.

4. Donate to the cause. Unfortunately the enemies of your kin's future have billions of private money, and billions of your tax dollars to use against you. We must in able to fight back. You can also join PRAC or buy some Sawgrass Rebellion souvenirs.

5. Last but probably most important, use your God given talents to help. You are dynamic and powerful and are capable of accomplishing much.

This is a major FReep event. Here are just some of the FReepers who will be there:

Seeking the Truth - President of the Florida chapter of Free Republic. He will be selling his stamps and has made one for the Sawgrass Rebellion.

Conservative - Bill Ames, journalist and VIP for the Citizens for a Sound Economy. Who have fully backed the SGR from the beginning. He's riding with the convoy as we speak.

nunya bidness - Journalist for the Sierra Times.

Fearless Flyers - Owner of Fearless Flyers Kites. He has made a custom Sawgrass Rebellion Silk kite for the event. If you haven't seen his work, these things are pure silk and absolutely beautiful.

Issaquahking - traveling with the convoy.

sauropod - Longtime FReeper, land rights activist and member of the FR network.

Joe Brower - Founder of the California chapter of the Tyranny Response Team (TRT) and all around great guy.

AAABEST - Member of PRAC and one of the organizers of the event.

My Favorite Headache - Activist and FReeper. Helped run Jesse Jackson out of West Palm Beach during the 2000 election coup attempt by Algore.

Just a few of the other dedicated FReepers who will be there:
Teacher317
BOBTHENAILER
Beach_Babe
dorben
Prodigal Daughter
Nayt2
Eustace

God bless America, God Bless this forum, God bless the Sawgrass Rebellion and most of all God bless YOU.

As far as you know, does the Sawgrass Rebellion and Property Rights Action Committee vary any in their goals?

Our goals in regard to Florida is to stop our people from having their communities and lives ruined by the 8.1 billion dollar CERP. We have this crazy notion that our children are more important than a bird or a tortoise. We don't relish the idea that the fruits of our labor will eventually wind up in the asset column of the 3 billion dollar Nature Conservancy, or in the hands of S. Florida Water Mangagement with a "No Trespassing" sign on it.

Incidentally, our Water Mangagement VIPs are allowed to sit on the board of directors of the Nature Conservancy.

We haven't worked with Paragon before this so I can't speak to whether or not our goals coincide on other issues. I would venture to guess they probably do when it comes to fighting the war on rural America.

Is there a consensus on what they do want? For instance, do they want it to fully proceed in principle, in part or not at all? Will they accept forced confiscation of any land critical to the project if paid a fair market price?

Personally, I love the Everglades and spend much time enjoying the beauty of the "River of Grass". CERP has very little to do with saving the environment, and very much to do with development, agri-baron and enviro-conglomerate money interests, input from crucial stakeholders such as small communities and farmers was neither asked for nor needed. They didn't have enough money to get a seat at the table.

They refuse to have thier junk science peer reviewed by non-interested parties. Even their own scientists admit that introducing nutrient and contaminant rich water is poison to the Glades.

There is no "fair market price" when you have 6 inches of water in your front yard and your septic system is renedered inoperable. They fully understand that they could never afford current fair market price, the money isn't there. They also fully understand that just by them showing up they have a chilling effect on real estate markets. Would you want to buy property that may be targeted for rehydration?

As far as forced confiscation, it's not an issue. Congress budgeted millions and ordered the ACOE not to harm any communities in any rehydration projects. They've chosen to completely ignore this mandate, and nobody is doing a damn thing about it.

If you're looking for a more direct answer to your question the answer is NO. We don't want any more takings at all, they already own over 85% of my county and over 95% of Monroe County. All of it tax-base useless and much of it overgrown bug infested wasteland. Land they took from the Indians and Crackers that was well maintained and teeming with wildlife (including the endangered panther) is now overgrown with mangroves and devoid of nearly all animals, predator and prey alike.

The 70,000 acres targeted right down the road from me is full of many of the endangered tortoises and other animals they pretend to care about. The water they will introduce will do nothing but destroy (not restore) that area.

Why is it that if some homeowner wants to build a home and the evironmental survey finds one of these "endangered" species the owner is forced to pay thousands in mitigation yet they plan on detroying an entire habitat wholesale?

This is simly about control of land, water and money. Tools of power in South Florida, nothing else. They're not restoring anything and they know it.

One last thing, the map here: http://www.sawgrassrebellion.org/ seems to reflect the goals of a private and radical organization, but is that necessarily the state or national policy that the rebellion is attempting to thwart. If not, that would seem to be misleading.

The radical org you speak of is "Earth First", founded by Dave Foreman. The Wildlands project you're referring to is the Holy Grail of the elitists, "deep ecologists" and useful idiots who inhabit the environmental movement.

Their anti-captialism and even anti-human agenda is no secret.

You won't find the more clever of the bunch bragging about it, they know the vision of tranferring vast amounts of property from homeowners and farmer hands to public and environmental interests is not one shared by the general (albeit clueless) public, but they slip now and again. They really do want the people gone.

"Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental."-Dave Forman, founder of Earth First, and presently a member of the Board of Directors for the Sierra Club

"I honor Earth First for having the guts to do the things they do. It's not for me, but I understand why they do what they do. And, ultimately, we all help each other." -Brock Adams, VP, Audubon Society, quoted in the Los Angeles Times.

Human happiness and certainly human fecundity is not as important as a wild and healthy planet. Some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along. - David Graber, Biologist for the National Park Service.

You had some good questions, I hope my info was appropriate.

For what my opinion's worth, I'd like to make a couple of observations. Most of what I've read on the Rebellion web site and in your post is appropriate for Freepers, but not Florida voters in general. Rather than providing a brief overview of the project and congressional directives, and then succinctly chronicling abuses by administrators, their excesses/crimes are lost in a labyrinth of conspiratorial rhetoric. You and I are open to that, but most people are as suspicious of it as they are of the people you're fighting, and they don’t want to dig deep enough into it to find out how much of each side's claims are true.

I think the Rebellion would benefit from a more focus on the land devaluation. The Rebellion's web site's distracted with Earth First graphics and discussion of sea sparrows. You're talking about tortoises and bug infestations, and no one but us right wing nuts are going to put up with that many twists.

I'm new to Monroe county, coming from California, but I think that the motivation for Everglades restoration here is its effect on Florida Bay water quality and the reefs rather than a few obscure species. That seems to be a real problem that's worth a lot to correct.

You may be able to make the case that the influence from the sugar growers has crippled the project so that it won't help, but that's going to be a tough battle, and I haven't seen the evidence.

I'm not an activist so take this for what it's worth, but in my opinion the Rebellion has a much better chance of convincing voters that crimes are being committed in the implementation of the project if you focus on that and accept the project itself. At least accept the greater project goals.

I think people would be more open to the Rebellion's message if it were open to alternatives, even if that means a rewrite of legislation to foreclose on property. I don’t mean to be argumentative, but I'm pretty sure there is a fair market price for any piece of property. An objective assessment is possible by comparing property to similar property sold prior to the restoration project and what it's selling for now. I'm sure that it would be more complex and more assumptions would have to be made, but that is possible.

From what I can tell, that's the Rebellion's strength - crimes against land owners, but it's not well developed. I had a hard time following discussions of the 8.5 plan verses the 6 plan, why it was abandoned, reverences to unexplained congressional directives and rumors of hardships rather than and index of hardships. As long as the Rebellion's perceived as attacking the people who are ruining other people's lives and open to creative solutions, you'll appeal to almost everyone. Everything else looks like a distraction, as if you're getting caught playing defense to their game rather than setting the agenda.

Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me BTW. I've been receiving your bumps but wasn't sure where you were going with this. Good luck!

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