Another July 4th

I have heard it said that 'one never appreciates the freedoms one has, until those freedoms are gone.'

In the last months since November 2018, I have found that to be true.  Once upon a time, mineral rights meant something.  Now, all a company has to do is go to a judge who will grant them to a company, without compensation to the homeowner.  A pipeline can be put in on a homeowner's land, without permission, within FEET of the house.  Some companies have tried to tunnel gas pipelines UNDER houses.

We homeowners, who live in the bullseye of natural gas, are told to "just sell and leave" if we do not like it.  Easier said than done.  My home will be devalued next year by approximately 30%, by a gas company from Wisconsin, who has no oversight by Michigan because the pipeline only runs through the state.  However, the township I live in, which has been of no assistance, won't lower my taxes.  They will continue to get the same money and more, while I have less of a chance to get out.

Two hundred forty-three years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote, in a now-famous document:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...

According to Bluewater, we have no right to life or liberty.  Our lives are not even worth dirt berms and trees, designed to protect the area from explosions by directing the force upwards.  Our liberty does not exist when a company can say, "We will do we want, and you can't stop us."   Until the US Supreme Court returns homeowners' rights to the homeowners, this is the situation.

However, all hope is not lost.  Tuesday the second I was in Lansing with my neighbors, asking the MPSC to intervene however they might be able.   The youtube channel for the MPSC will show you my neighbors were more eloquent than I.  Right before I spoke, the January 30th incident flashed before my eyes and caused me to stutter (though I did mean it when I said I would rather have Consumers behind me than Bluewater.  I mean it with all my heart.)  The MPSC heard us.  They are doing what little they can to assist us with the safety of the plant, and for that I am so very grateful. 

I am sure Bluewater will find a way to punish us for that, but that is the price of freedom.  We signed our names in our blood Tuesday as did the signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.   As gruesome as that sounds, it is true.  If Bluewater gets to build their plant like the one on 29 Mile and there's another explosion, it will mean damage and death here.  What do I fear more -- Bluewater's retribution or an explosion?  After all, they seem to like to blow up every 5-6 years.