As of November 13, 2006, the small town of Lefors, Texas will be one step closer to making poverty criminal and enforcing actions of those who dare to make insufficient income to meet the town's standards.
In their City Council meeting, they are scheduled to discuss an ordinance "establishing a minimum standard of living and prohibiting scavenging from dumpsters". These ordinances are being specifically written to target families who do not live to the town's expected standard of living, and to give the town muscle for enforcement. Once finalized, they will allow the full force of law to fine families who do not have the money to meet the standard of living that their council of five deems to be the legal minimum for living in their community.
Oddly enough, noone among the community has seen the hypocrisy of fining people who don't have the money to pay for certain creature comforts.
Because Lefors is such a small community, however, nobody seems to care. Advocates for the poor who will readily defend the right of someone to live out of a park in San Francisco are remarkably silent when approached with a small Texas town's "right" to demand that people who live on certain properties (some of whom OWN said properties)live to a standard of living set about by the community oligarchs. To say nothing of criminalizing those who would save landfill space by reusing something that was otherwise destined to take up said space.
This law in Lefors, Texas is specifically targetted. Towards my family because we dared to help a family whose water was shut off by allowing them to get water from our house, and because we had the audacity to pull quite usable items (including a handmade quilt) out of our dumpster rather than see them end up as waste. To the family who had the audacity of being too poor to pay the water bill. To the couple who are community pariahs because they use an outbuilding on their property for showering (in complete privacy, I might add) because they couldn't afford a $5,000 bathroom remodel. To all who dare question the unlimited authority of the Lefors City Council.
Lefors is not a wealthy community, by any means. There are no $100,000 homes with interest in protecting their property values. The median income of the community is well below the national average, and many of the citizens are elderly and on fixed incomes. But as the city has already established with other ordinances, this new ordinance will be selectively enforced. It is written to target certain citizens, and target certain citizens it will.
If anybody knows an attorney who would be willing to represent anyone affected by this legislation, you may contact me at: gideon.macleish@gmail.com. Media coverage would also be well appreciated. I will be attending the meeting to provide specific details of the proposed ordinance (which will be passed with a rubber stamp, as with other recent ordinances), and would like to work with you to ensure that this miscarriage of justice never sees fruition. The US Constitution, after all, does not end at our city limits.