Comments on: Considered Opinion on Gas Pipelines and Eminent Domain in WV & VA https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2018/08/11/considered-opinion-on-gas-pipelines-and-eminent-domain-in-wv-va/ Just another WordPress site Wed, 14 Feb 2024 02:06:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Mary Wildfire https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2018/08/11/considered-opinion-on-gas-pipelines-and-eminent-domain-in-wv-va/#comment-220100 Mary Wildfire Sun, 12 Aug 2018 11:44:09 +0000 http://www.frackcheckwv.net/?p=24815#comment-220100 I think a contract to buy land should be seen as similar to a marriage contract, not to a contract to buy a car. A car is a lifeless piece of property--morally, you can do whatever you want with it. But a piece of land is the basis for life of countless beings. Our society regards land ownership as a regal thing--you are entitled to do whatever you want with it, as long as it doesn't impact others' land and we generally turn a blind eye to evidence of harm to neighbors, certainly including those downstream in time, that is whoever will own your property after you've died or sold it. We also usually completely ignore the rights of everyone who lives on the land who isn't human. With marriage, we say that you don't OWN your new spouse--you just have exclusive rights to certain relationship aspects, and obligations to succor and defend the other person. This is how we should view land ownership. I don't stand God-like in relation to the land, I just get the rights among humans to choose how to use the land. But I also have the obligation to defend the land if it's threatened, by wildfires or plagues or, more likely, human enemies. Some landowners take this attitude when a pipeline threatens their own and many others' land and air and climate. Society often treats these people as criminals but they are in fact the most responsible people among us. Mary Wildfire, Roane County, WV I think a contract to buy land should be seen as similar to a marriage contract, not to a contract to buy a car. A car is a lifeless piece of property–morally, you can do whatever you want with it. But a piece of land is the basis for life of countless beings.

Our society regards land ownership as a regal thing–you are entitled to do whatever you want with it, as long as it doesn’t impact others’ land and we generally turn a blind eye to evidence of harm to neighbors, certainly including those downstream in time, that is whoever will own your property after you’ve died or sold it. We also usually completely ignore the rights of everyone who lives on the land who isn’t human.

With marriage, we say that you don’t OWN your new spouse–you just have exclusive rights to certain relationship aspects, and obligations to succor and defend the other person. This is how we should view land ownership.

I don’t stand God-like in relation to the land, I just get the rights among humans to choose how to use the land. But I also have the obligation to defend the land if it’s threatened, by wildfires or plagues or, more likely, human enemies.

Some landowners take this attitude when a pipeline threatens their own and many others’ land and air and climate. Society often treats these people as criminals but they are in fact the most responsible people among us.

Mary Wildfire, Roane County, WV

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