This is the third installment of my short story “The Wars”. If you haven’t already read Chapters 1 & 2 you can

< click here to read Chapter 1 >

< click here to read Chapter 2 >

Please read the Chapter 1 intro to understand a little more of this story.

Also, there is a disclaimer that you can read there as well.

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[We left off last night talking about the county and county property taxes. Dad gets pretty worked up about this so I hoped he was up to this. Turns out he wasn’t. He was extremely tired last night. He seemed kinda distant as well. I think he is just fading away as if his time has come and gone. Well, almost gone. I think he just hangs on to make sure we are all going to be alright. I am 71 now but I am still Dad’s kid. I am grateful for that, I want to be his son, I want him to be my Dad. I made sure he slept in this morning, something he rarely does. He’s normally the first one up, and I usually find him in the garden doing one thing or another. It made me tear up last week when I found him in the garden, he had knelt down to pull weeds and couldn’t get back up on his feet till I helped him. I didn’t tell anyone, he has his pride and dignity. I don’t know for how much longer though. There will be a big hole in my heart when he is gone.]

Okay David, so last night we stopped at the place where the county government was trying to seize property because of unpaid property taxes. Bastards! Who in their right mind thinks that’s right? Well, I’ll tell you, only people who like big, expensive government likes that idea! Sorry, back to the story.

Well, at their next meeting [of county commissioners] a large group of citizens showed up, representatives from every part of the county except the Indians. Our county back then was something like 200 miles north to south and about 50 miles wide east to west. Two-thirds of that was Indian reservation. The population was about 50,000 people by then with 1/3rd to half of those being Indians. The county leadership didn’t represent the people, period. How could they? Some communities were 100 or more miles from the county seat!

So the reps simply told the county that they no longer recognized the county government, end of story. The reps told the commissioners they no longer had any authority and they would finalize a plan to divide the county into more commonsense county borders of approximately 4 – 5 new counties, none of which would include the reservation. Funny, at that point 4 Indians entered the meeting and stated they supported the plan and that the reservation would no longer be part of the county but simply the reservation, an independent entity. Turns out that 3 of them Indians were ‘elders’ and the 4th was their ‘war chief’.

One of the commissioners started banging a gavel but everyone ignored him. He threatened to have the room cleared but everyone ignored him.

A rep called for a vote, it was unanimous with the reps and Indians, the county was abolished, the Sheriff’s office no longer had any authority, commissioners were fired, and the meeting was called adjourned. They walked out. That was the end of the county, the property taxes, the raids, all of it! Just like that…we the people.

It kinda shocked a lot of people that they could just ignore the existing county government and form something that made far more sense. Then again, the Declaration of Independence states just that; reform or abolish government when it doesn’t do the job. Amazing what power people do have when they set their minds to it and flex a little muscle.

About 60 days later a county convention was held and 5 new counties were formed out of the old one, not including the Indian reservation. But the Indian delegation was present at the meeting. Each set of laws adopted by the new counties were identical, no property taxes, no income taxes, no public schools, and no services other than the bare necessities. There wasn’t even any fire departments any more, there would only be volunteer fire departments. There were no social services of any kind. I don’t remember all the details but each county seat had a single small building, a judge, and commissioners that would meet 1 time a quarter. Best of all…any tax or fee, any cost to citizens, had to be put to a vote of county residents. For a measure to pass 75% of registered voters had to vote and 75% of those voting had to approve it. And it was codified that there could never be any form of income tax or property tax ever!

My personal favorite, no codes department, no inspectors, no one telling people what they can and can’t build. Now that is freedom! A few of the new counties had what could be called a small city or town, their governments stayed in-place for the time being. But none of their laws, regulations, rules, measures, etc. could violate the county laws; county law was supreme.

So why no property tax? Simple, property tax is a main principle of Communism as outlined in the Communist Manifesto. So why no income tax? Simple, income tax is a main principle of Communism as outlined in the Communist Manifesto. And government people telling you how to build your house was the ultimate form of Communism and authoritarianism. We were having no more of any of that, period!

Everyone was excited at the meeting, I mean really a buzz and excitement in the crowd. People truly felt empowered and like they controlled their own lives again. Then the state got involved the next week.

Yeah, the Democrat Governor sent an individualized letter, hand delivered by a DPS trooper, to each of the new county commissioners telling them they were basically guilty of the equivalent of state treason, they were to cease and desist, and would be arrested within 10 days should they not comply. This move was expected and planned on. The reactions were identical. A letter was given to each  DPS trooper right then and there. The letter explained in detail why they had taken action, that it was irrevocable, and should the Governor take any action, or even threaten any additional action, the new counties would no longer recognize the state government. The press was there for each exchange of letters. We the people struck again! Honestly, people do have the power, the real power. Just too often back then people were afraid to use that power.

The two neighboring counties took the same action the next week, a third county did the same the week following. The Governor tried to take action in the state legislature but none of the four old previous counties’ reps showed up. Let’s just say they were strongly encouraged not to, if you get what I mean. But reps from the new counties showed up and presented each house of the legislature with a letter informing them of the new counties, the boundaries, and the new state reps until an election could be held.

The state legislature didn’t care too much for this move because the large cities would lose their majority since each new county would have a senator and two representatives. And a kicker, none of the new counties recognized the state’s right to property taxes or income taxes. And one more little tidbit, each county would be forming a county ‘militia’ that would supplement the new Sheriffs’ departments. And they [the militias] would hold the same authority when performing official duties.

The next two weeks saw three more counties sign on to the whole tax and militia aspect of it. Within three weeks after that a state convention was called to reorganize the entire state government. The Governor ordered DPS troopers to get involved. Luckily for them they refused. Then she called out the state’s Army National Guard, they refused stating it was a civil matter for government not the military.

The end result was a state government that was about 10% of the original! Thank God! People finally took back control and realized that we were much better off with a small, restricted government, and keep their money in their pocket where it belonged. Government never really had a right to all of the people’s money in the first place.

What’s really interesting what the state of Arizona looks like now, almost 20+ years later. It expanded to include a pretty wide strip all the way to the pacific ocean to encompass San Diego to get the naval base out of the Pacific compact states. The state also accepted the petition from some western New Mexico counties to join Arizona. Arizona now goes all the way to the Rio Grand river to the east. Same goes for a small chunk of southeast Nevada and southwest Colorado.

All the residents in those areas who weren’t thrilled about the changes were invited to leave. A bunch did, a few didn’t. It all worked out in the end.

Arizona is now a strong and vibrant state with a very patriotic population. The southern border is secured after years of battling Mexico. The wall is a beautiful thing and solid against the scum invaders from the south. There are very few illegals left in Arizona. Most were caught while committing crimes and immediately sent back south of the border. If you wanted to work in Arizona you had to prove citizenship, period. There is no, was no, welfare or government benefits of any kind, so many of the illegals deported themselves. To buy property you had to prove citizenship, period. To register to vote you had to prove citizenship, period.

What was fantastic to see was the compassion and empathy that was shown. If an illegal family was found-out, and friends and neighbors stood up for them, and they had no criminal record they were granted citizenship through actual birth certificates which circumvented national regulations.

[And yes, you read it right] The new Arizona include San Diego and the naval base there. Lots of folks laughed when you could now buy ocean-front property in Arizona.

Arizona was a shit storm for a while but it all came out for the best. A lot of the young people nowadays wondered why we hadn’t done it before. But back then government, at all levels, ruled with an iron fist, authoritarianism.If you resisted or even objected to what they were doing they would fine you, take your property, arrest you, or worse. They did rule with an iron fist. So many people just accepted it like it was government’s right to treat people like that. No more! Finally.

Once people realized that the true power rested in their hands, they realized they could control and run the government, not the other way around. Now in this day and age, if you are a politician or government worker, and you go outside of your boundaries, it doesn’t go well for you. More than a few people have been, let’s just say, corrected by physical means. Yup, a couple had their house burned down when they tried to by some butt-head authoritarian. One guy, the mayor of Tuscon, tried to be this tyrant king of Tuscon with his very large thug police force. It went bad for the average person for months, till they finally caught him. He was hung the next day at noon after a trial by his residents. Guilty on all charges. No more than two days later you couldn’t find a single one of his police officers. Justice served.

[I called an end to this session early, he just looks too tired. Maybe we will skip tomorrow and just relax and let Dad enjoy doing nothing but being around the kids.]

<- click here to read Chapter 2                                                                     click here to read Chapter 4 ->

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Short Story Chapters –

• The Wars: Chapter 1
• The Wars: Chapter 2
• The Wars: Chapter 3
• The Wars: Chapter 4
• The Wars: Chapter 5
• The Wars: Chapter 6
• The Wars: Chapter 7
• The Wars: Chapter 8
• The Wars: Chapter 9
• The Wars: Chapter 10

 

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