Agenda 21 becomes bogeyman for Tea Party arguments
By Roy Ockert Jr.
Nov. 25, 2014
A United Nations document known as Agenda 21, originally signed by the United States and 177 other nations in 1992, has become the bogeyman for many causes opposed by members of the Tea Party movement.
During the past two years in Jonesboro Agenda 21 has been cited as the evil reason behind a variety of public projects, including a greenway development, the construction of and widening of sidewalks, bicycle paths, multi-family housing, a long-range planning document, the city’s public bus service and several rezoning proposals, one of which would clear the way for a major mixed-use development in north Jonesboro.
Even though Agenda 21 was originally signed by President George H.W. Bush, much of today’s rhetoric accuses President Barack Obama of “following the UN Agenda 21 Plan for Sustainable Development.” One letter writer also said that Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin is “apparently impressed enough with Agenda 21’s goals to have just joined the Local Leaders Council, a group that promotes Smart Growth [Agenda 21] concepts.”
One of the first warned that Agenda 21 endangers single-family homes, individual travel choices, private ownership of property, vehicles and farms, “your freedom, even your life” (because sustainable development allegedly calls for massive population reduction).
During a recent controversy over rezoning for the mixed-use development, which would occupy a 201-acre tract near Arkansas State University, Secure Arkansas sent Perrin a Freedom of Information request, asking for documents and communication records regarding the proposal.
Subsequently, Perrin released hundreds of pages of e-mails and other documents, many of which were anonymous articles by Secure Arkansas that had been forwarded to city officials. One warned that “This should open your eyes as to how Jonesboro seems to be implementing UN Agenda 21 locally.”
Rezoning for the Greensborough Village Town Center was approved.
Oddly, Agenda 21 was mostly ignored after its signing, as are most United Nations documents. In fact, the idea that the UN could control anything is absurd on its face.
Nevertheless, the demonization of Agenda 21 began with the John Birch Society, the radical right-wing group, according to an April report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Birchers claimed that Agenda 21 is a secret plot to impose a totalitarian world government and to crush freedom in the name of environmentalism, all leading to the murder of 90 percent of the world’s population.
However, Agenda 21 is nothing more than a planning paper, not a treaty, and has no force of law anywhere. It’s a 350-page document that will put you to sleep by the end of Section I, titled “Social and Economic Dimensions.” Throughout the document are suggestions for ways that local, state and national governments can fight poverty and pollution and conserve natural resources on an increasingly crowded planet.
Fear-mongers frequently quote certain ominous passages, such as Objective 7.28: “The objective is to provide ... through land use so as to ensure access to land to all households and ... the encouragement of communally and collectively owned and managed land.” This is supposed to be a call for socialism.
But they leave out important wording. Here it is in full: “The objective is to provide for the land requirements of human settlement development through environmentally sound physical planning and land use so as to ensure access to land to all households and, where appropriate, the encouragement of communally and collectively owned and managed land. Particular attention should be paid to the needs of women and indigenous people for economic and cultural reasons.”
Note particularly the phase “where appropriate.” At one point the United States decided it was appropriate to relocate Native Americans to communally owned and managed lands known as reservations.
No set of objectives could possibly be applied uniformly to all the nations of the world. There is way too much difference between, say, the United States and Japan to establish a common land use plan. Heck, we have enough trouble trying to make federal laws apply to all states in our union.
Another Agenda 21 objective often taken out of context is one about transportation, leading some to argue that it wants to do away with private vehicle use and make people walk or ride bicycles.
Objective 7.52 says, in part: “Promoting efficient and environmentally sound urban transport systems in all countries should be a comprehensive approach to urban-transport planning and management. To this end, all countries should: ... b. Adopt urban-transport programs favoring high-occupancy public transport in countries, as appropriate; c. Encourage non-motorized modes of transport by providing safe cycleways and footways in urban and suburban centers in countries, as appropriate; ...”
Again the phrase “as appropriate” is critical. Providing a greenway for walkers and bikers is a recreational project for a U.S. city. In Tanzania it might be a critical pathway to market.
The objective goes on to suggest re-evaluating “the present consumption and production patterns in order to reduce the use of energy and national resources.” Any nation that doesn’t re-evaluate its energy needs in the light of supply and demand is foolish indeed.
That doesn’t mean anyone is going to take away our automobiles. They are as much a part of American life as baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. In the 350 pages of Agenda 21 is only one mention of vehicles and none of automobiles.
Next week’s column will continue this discussion.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.