After Sparta, New Jersey’s Town Council voted unilaterally (without any public referendum and over the objections of the vast majority of those citizens who attended the public hearings on the matter) by a 3 to 2 margin, to sign onto a mandatory trash collection contract with a private carting service, a number of Sparta citizens organized a petition drive to force a voter referendum on the issue.
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For that, those grassroots activists are true American heroes. One Sparta resident said, “On Friday morning, I thought I was waking up in the USA, but by Saturday night, I felt as if I were living in another country,”He noted that he felt many Sparta residents weren’t aware that people who refuse or neglect to pay this added “utility charge” could lose their homes through Municipal leins.
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“What I’m doing is creating a precedent. Never has a petition knocked down an ordinance. If I can do it, everyone else can do it too. What I’m trying to do is to show the town that we can put the town back in the people’s hands.”
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These citizen activists face an uphill fight. They have only twenty days to get the required 15% of the 3,850 who voted in November. The deadline for the signatures is December 26th, and the required 578 signatures are due by that date.
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A victory for this citizen's movement is a victory for the people of Sparta, and the people of America as well, for his actions are a beacon to all who’d seek to return government to an indentured servitude to the people and that can only be done via more widespread use of petition and referendum!
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Here’s wishing all the independent minded citizens of Sparta success in their current endeavor, as well as a very Merry Christmas. It’s fitting that this petition drive is happening during the Christmas season, as it seeks a rebirth of individual Liberty and more local/popular control.
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Pictured above is the boardwalk at Lake Mohawk in Sparta, NJ.
