"A society that puts equality - in the sense of equality of outcome - ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to acheive equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests." --Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman

By Zak A. Klemmer

     What George Orwell couldn't foresee was the "new left" and a new radical egalitarianism
which has spawned organizations like PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [sic].
Even more powerful is the raw force behind the Endangered Species Act.  This puts plant
life, insects, and other subhuman species above the human race in the eyes of the Federal
Government.  Now acting man, in his drive for freedom and self-actualization, must battle his own
government for space and life on this planet!

     At issue in this edition is the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly.  This insect inhabits
only a 30-mile stretch on both sides of Interstate 10 in San Bernardino County, in southern
California.  By being put on the Endangered Species Act list of protected animals, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service (FWS) has acted to place human beings below this insect in the eyes of the
law.  It is time to call the Orkin man and not the FWS.

     Linda Dawes of FWS originally demanded that San Bernardino County officals close down
a portion of Interstate 10, which is the main highway from Phoenix, Arizona to Los Angeles,
California annually during the months of August and September to protect the insect!  Ms. Dawes
it seems is more concerned with "traffic fatalities" of this flower-loving fly and not with our
liberty under the U.S. Constitution.  In this brouhaha over the proposed closing of Interstate 
10 with San Bernardino County officials, Ms. Dawes has retreated from her original extremist 
position to that of allowing the freeway to remain open as long as motorists comply with a 15
miles-per-hour speed limit during these two months.  Can't she be cited with attempting to impede
interstate commerce?  Common sense would dictate that she is fired and committed to the 
California State Mental Hospital in Camarillo, California.

     My plan would be to let mother nature take its course, or let any motorist voluntarily
contribute to a fund to pay an exterminator to eliminate this problem.  However, San Bernardino
County has been requested by FWS to spend more than 3.5 million dollars of the tax payers hard
earned wages to protect the fly.  FWS has has required the county to fence off eight acres of 
prime real estate as a fly reserve, and several California builders have been forced to fence 
off acreage for the fly, while others have been required to spend more than $50,000. for 
environmental impact reports in order to prevent their projects from injuring this insect.

     According to an editorial in DESIGN/BUILD BUSINESS- August 1996, by its publisher 
Jim McKellar:  "The autocratic FWS has taken. . . two unreal actions that you should be aware of:
(1) The town of Colton was ordered to pay $350,000. for fly preserve land in exchange for being
allowed to build an electrical substation on ground that currently has no flies, but may be
suitable as a habitat in the future. (2) In order to comply with an FWS demand to protect as 
many as (or as few as) eight flies, San Bernardino County was required to move the location of 
its new County Medical Center and regional earthquake trauma care facility 250 feet north- after 
earlier having to shut down the job entirely.  Bruce Smith, a home builder and chairman of the NAHB's 
Endangered Species Act Working Group, called FWS handling of the fly 'the perfect example of 
what's wrong with the FWS today.  Instead of engaging in productive and common sense efforts to
save an endangered species, the federal government needlessly imposes unfunded mandates upon 
private citizens and local governments in pursuit of bureaucratic dead ends.'"

     The Bureaucracy is clearly playing GOD here, an EAS draft recovery plan shows that 
the Delhi Sands fly is doomed, no matter what human actions are taken.  Communism may be dead or
fading in eastern Europe, but, Collectivism as a political philosophy is still dangerous to 
everyone who loves their life and liberty. Call Congress to demand the repeal of the
Endangered Species Act.

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