The United States has a sovereignty problem.  Shocking enough, this is a problem that is being perpetrated by the very people who are tasked to protect our sovereignty.  Floridians have recently become aware of further efforts to take land from US citizens and turn it over to the United Nations.  All US citizens must learn from this because, if it hasn’t already, it is coming to a city near you.

Senator Bill Nelson has joined with the US Department of Agriculture and the US Department of Interior to take farm land and ranch land from Florida farmers and ranchers and sell it to the Federal Government so that they can hand it over to the United Nations for management and control.  Florida should have a saving grace.  Florida has a Commissioner of Agriculture, Adam Putnam, who is tasked by Floridians and the 9^th and 10^th Amendments to protect the very land and industry under attack by this “deal of the century”.  The real problem is that Adam Putnam is “on board” too.  Mr. Putnam issued his own statement, heralding this deal as “a model for smart environmental protection.”  Before you accuse me of donning my tinfoil hat, let’s look at the facts.

On August 11, 2011 Senator Bill Nelson sent out an email to his constituents in which he attached a letter that he apparently sent to Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture and Ken Salazar, Secretary of the US Department of Interior.   In this email, Nelson states

 As we discussed some months ago, conserving land to the north of the Everglades is vitally important to the restoration effort that is finally underway at this World Heritage site. Today’s announcement is another signal that the administration is fully behind restoration of the River of Grass. (emphasis added)

In this first paragraph of Nelson’s email, those three highlighted words seemed very peculiar to me.  Mr. Nelson is referring to the Florida Everglades as a “World Heritage site”. Being somewhat new to this idea, I had never heard those terms before and began to do some research.  What I found, I believe, will be very new to many in Florida and the rest of the country as well.

A World Heritage site is a geographical area that is of global environmental or cultural significance.   Declaring an area a World Heritage site establishes that governments must submit to the monitoring of these sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).  UNESCO then has the power and authority to seize control these sites if the World Heritage Committee determines intervention is necessary to properly maintain the sites or some “crisis” has occurred that requires intervention.  Apparently, Florida’s everglades are listed as a World Heritage site.  The Everglades are number 76 on a list of sites worldwide.

Something that I found very interesting was the history of the Everglades as a World Heritage site.  The World Heritage Center gives this history:

 “Declared a national park on 6 December 1947 under the May 1934 Act of Congress. The park was accepted as a biosphere reserve in 1976, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1979, and was designated a Ramsar site (Wetland of International Significance) in 1987. The total area of the national park was increased in 1989 from its original size of 566,788ha to its current size.”

Now that we have the understanding that the Everglades are already monitored, protected, and arguably maintained by the UN, what does this federal grant mean to Floridians?  Bill Nelson’s email explains:

 “Specifically, I am referring to the announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that 24,000 acres of working ranchlands within the Northern Everglades will be protected in conservation easements.”

If you recall, the Everglades’ boundaries are already established on the World Heritage Center’s description.  It was noted in this historical description that its boundaries were expanded in 1989.  Now, according to Nelson, these boundaries will be expanded once again by 24,000 acres and turned into “conservation easements” that will be permanently maintained by the UN.

When I called Adam Putnam’s office about this, his aid offered the explanation that the farmers and ranchers do not have to sell their land in this grant; they could keep their land.  However, at fear of pointing out the obvious, if they do not sell, the land will still become a “conservation easement” maintained by the UN.  The farmers will be required to pay property taxes and carry insurance on land that they do not really own and can never use to create revenue.  Even more disturbing is the fact that if the World Heritage Committee does not like the way the farmer or rancher is maintaining his land, Putnam has given the UN his blessing to come dictate land management to a US citizen, and citizen of the state of Florida.

Putnam’s aid told me that this is a federal program and that Putnam has no control over it, claiming not to know very much about the grant (in spite of the fact that I spoke to the aid on August 12 and Putnam had issued his press release on August 11).  He suggested that if I wanted to know more or have concerns that I should contact the USDA.  I thought it was Putnam’s job to protect Florida from Federal (and international) encroachment.  That’s what James Madison intended to be his job under the 9^th and 10^th Amendments.

My problem with Putnam’s aid’s explanation is that it is no explanation at all.  Are we to understand that Mr. Putnam is handing over the very land Floridians have tasked him to protect with very little knowledge or concern?  I do appreciate the environmental concerns over water management.  I do not understand why Mr. Putnam feels that Floridians cannot conserve their own land and water and that the United Nations would do a better job.

This is not a Florida problem; this is a United States sovereignty problem. Currently the UN controls 21 geographical areas in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Philadelphia, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.   Our founders warned us of the destruction brought by foreign governments.  John Adams, in his inaugural address of 1797 warned that if we were not careful, if our Government could be “influenced by foreign nations, by flattery or menaces, by fraud or violence, by terror or intrigue, the Government may not be the choice of the American People, but of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations that govern us and not we, the people, who govern ourselves.”

We had better wake up America.  Our sovereignty is being eroded.  We are quickly becoming a government ruled by foreign nations.  This is but one example.

Floridians concerned over Mr. Putnam’s either ignorance over the facts or lack of concern for Florida’s sovereignty should call him immediately at (850) 488-3022.