We continually hear about protecting our Homeland, defending our American way of life by fighting and dying in other countries. Showing other countries how democracy works. But, many of our brave defenders of America return to the states, not to a country anymore but to a “homeland.” A country being battered by states of the union proclaiming that they are sovereign states. Returning to their state with its public policy to protect and defend, not America, not individual rights and freedoms, but to protect and defend HOA-Land with its sanctity of contract, supreme over constitutional law.
One more time we are witnessing a returning veteran having to deal with his independent and protected principality, this time over a “cause celebre,” a child’s swing set. (Army Captain Sued by HOA Over Kids’ Swing Set). Others have fought over the right to fly the American flag or a military flag in honor of lost loved ones. But no, the HOA cannot tolerate an infraction of any of its rules no matter the reason.
The HOA president, a WW II veteran, was quoted as saying, “I’m not immune to the emotions of this,” he said. “[But] if you break the rules, you broke the rules. You can’t break the rules for your own personal reasons.” I guess this WW II veteran never understood who or what he was fighting for then. Instead, it appears he adopted much from his experience. Heil HOA-Land! HOA-Land uber alles!
It appears that our political leaders, with no WW II veterans, have forgotten the events leading to WW II, and why Americans fought on foreign soil. However, I guess this is different, because this is not Germany but America. And things like that just don’t happen here.
Milton Mayer best describes what is happening in America when he sought answers as to why the good, average people of Germany let the Nazi Party take control prior to WWII. His words are applicable to today’s HOA-Land. In 1995, in They Thought They Were Free, he wrote,
What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little . . . . This separation of the government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and insensibly, each step disguised. . . . [Mayer believed that the good people went along] in the usual sincerity that required them only to abandon one principle after another, to throw away, little by little, all that was good.
References
Memorial Day: American soldiers are defending a New America, one without democratic protections (2007)
HOA made no attempt to contact soldier in Iraq before foreclosing (2010)
Pres. Obama spoke of getting involved in democracy (2009)
Pres. Obama and flying the flag in HOAs (2009)
Legislative protection of HOAs: replacing US organic law with HOA organic law (2012)