im bad at puzzles

Welcome back to your regular installment of in English class I learned of an issue I didn't know existed but I now know it exists and now I'm mad!

Me when I first hear the word eminent domain: 

@ridaa @parvathi (just in case you didn't hear me say it enough times this week)

And as someone who was quite uninformed on this topic, eminent domain didn't seem that bad at first. I have to admit, Source A almost won me over. I mean here's a policy where the government is actually creating national parks, preserving nature, and setting aside space for future generations! Wow! It almost sounds like a fairy tale type thing where once upon a time there was actually a government that isn't corrupt and did things for the people! (wow my distrust in gov. really coming out here!) 

But to be honest, Source A isn't as objective as it seems. Yes, it is from a government website - and government websites are usually credible. But the government is also going to be the best defender of their own policy - of course they'll flatter their own self! It's like one of those quiz rubrics where you just grade yourself. Try to be honest, key word: try. 

But the biggest problem with the rhetoric around eminent domain isn't just the possible overstatement of it's virtues: it's its ignorance. Our society total is grossly unequal - whether it's racial, economic, or social everyone at some point in today's day and age has faced some type of inequality. And the government isn't immune to this inequality either - bias plagues the system. Now let's put these two ideas together. 

a very accurate visual reference for you of what's gonna happen

First, eminent domain gives the government the power to take away property from citizens - without consultation. Second, the government is biased (as all thing are). Add it all together and what do you get? You get a high stakes situation where the margin for human error is huge. Now, you might think I'm being hard on eminent domain. After all, the day that we live in a perfect world will be the day pigs fly and pink elephants exist! How can I expect eminent domain to be perfect? Here's the thing: I don't expect eminent domain to be perfect. Of course there's outliers - in the form of both extreme success stories and extreme failures. 

*look at me using math words!*

But more than just a statistical success or failure rate, eminent domain is flawed fundamentally. Let me ask you this question: does the idea of forceful land seizure without any intake of opinion or citizens' rights remind you of anything? Anything, historically? I mean, did nobody else get Native-American-land-seizure vibes from this? Are we not going to forget that America took 1.5 billion acres (no that is not a typo, we actually took 1.5 BILLION acres) from Native Americans? Oh yea. 

If you think this is a stretch - well me too! I thought it was a bit of a stretch UNTIL I learned that eminent domain has already been used against Native Americans and other indigenous people to take away their land. 1957, the Colombia River Basin was taken from the Hidasta tribe. 2016, part of the Sioux reservation was seized to make way for the Dakota Pipeline. Literally right now, Trump is justifying the fact that his border wall would go through Native American land with eminent domain. The history of America with Native Americans is troubled enough - us sending missionaries to forcibly convert Native Americans to Jesus, causing the mass death of tribes through the Trail of Murders, forcing hundreds of thousands of Native Americans to assimilate or relocate. In a sense, eminent domain really is just a continuation of previous Native American suppression policies - only with a new, shinier name. 

So the final question: is eminent domain racist in itself? Eh..hard to tell. But we can't ignore the fact that it's often been weaponized against minorities, whether or not it was intended to be used that way. Overall, there's a lot of work to be done on eminent domain. I didn't even mention the compensation component of it but OOH especially that. If eminent domain is truly for the public then we need to start putting the public and the people first. 

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Now that I'm done with my assignment, I just want to say that I'm really happy that we get to learn about these important issues in this class. I absolutely LOVE deep talks and find things like this super interesting. But mostly I've found that I now view Troy and Troy High in a new light - a more well rounded one perhaps? I find myself down open to consider more perspectives and honestly I just love the good talks we have in class about these tings. It has been very fun but also educational. Thanks guys.