stephanie brail

The ACLU is helping a guy in Arizona fight for the right to fly a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag on his home. At issue is the Homeowners Association (HOA), which is making a stink about the flag. The “Gadsden flag” as it is also known, has been popular in the Ron Paul movement as an icon for constitutionalists. Now it’s also used by many Tea Party members, though the man in question claims he’s not involved with the Tea Party.

Of course, this is not the first instance of an HOA going overboard, but unfortunately, this may be a trend. Yahoo News reports that HOAs are trying to ban these flags around the country. While flags may be a sticky issue (what should you do if someone wants to fly a Nazi flag in the neighborhood?), HOAs seem to have gotten too much power in recent years.

HOAs are also making it hard for people to do practical, sustainable things such as hang laundry out to dry in the backyard, start a garden, or keep chicken on their property for food. As we hit peak oil, the ability to have your own garden may not just be a luxury but a necessity.

I’s not just the HOAs that are the problem. Governments in several Western states, including Utah, Colorado, and Washington, have banned the collection of rainwater in rain barrels, claiming that the water is being “diverted” from other places that might need it.

Rain barrel water and the right to hang a flag on your home may not seem like big deals, but as Mike Adams writes:

Today, we’ve basically been reprogrammed to think that we need permission from the government to exercise our inalienable rights, when in fact the government is supposed to derive its power from us. The American Republic was designed so that government would serve the People to protect and uphold freedom and liberty. But increasingly, our own government is restricting people from their rights to engage in commonsense, fundamental actions such as collecting rainwater or buying raw milk from the farmer next door.

Today, we are living under a government that has slowly siphoned off our freedoms, only to occasionally grant us back a few limited ones under the pretense that they’re doing us a benevolent favor.

HOAs and governments are more than happy to nitpick and slowly chip away at freedoms. But in order to navigate the changes ahead, we’ll need as much room as possible to try to create a new and better world. Let’s try to create a future that is more open and free, not less.

Fascinating article from BBC News about a new “Cult of Less,” where adherents let go of their possessions, digitize as much as possible, and sometimes even forgo homes altogether:

….Chris Yurista, a DJ from Washington, DC, cites this trend in digital music as one reason he was able to hand over the keys to his basement apartment over a year ago.

“It’s always nice to have a personal sense of home, but that aside – the internet has replaced my need for an address,” the 27-year-old said.

Since boxing up his physical possessions and getting rid of his home, Mr Yurista has taken to the streets with a backpack full of designer clothing, a laptop, an external hard drive, a small piano keyboard and a bicycle – an armful of goods that totals over $3,000 (£1,890) in value….

[Read more here...]

While I can’t say I would personally go homeless on purpose, I do find the idea of getting rid of things appealing. I’m planning an out-of-state move right now, and the amount of crap that I have is astonishing, especially considering that I am not that materialistic and rarely shop! (Yet, somehow, items seem to find their way to me.)

But it’s hard to let go of things. I get attached to the most ridiculous items…do I really need an extra key chain that says “coach” on it? I’ve had the damn thing for years, and yet I am loathe to put it in the Goodwill bag.

But I’m getting better. I recently gave away a bunch of video tapes. Yes, video tapes. It did feel a bit liberating. After all, do you really want to admit you’ve lived long enough to even have a collection of them?

Decluttering is a really good way to let go of old emotional stuff and attachments that may no longer serve you. Additionally, learning how to get by with “less” can be even more liberating. You learn how to trust the “universe” (or God) more. You become more than just your possessions. You can be defined by who you are in the moment, without the ghosts of items from the past boxing you in.

As we transition to a new world where sustainability will be a way of life out of necessity, “less is more” will become more than just a slogan. It will be a reminder of how liberating it is to be free of having possessions define you.

Do your possessions possess you? Just a little something to think about…