Food freedom alert: Bureaucrats in Michigan threaten woman with jail time for planting vegetable garden in her own yard

Monday, July 11, 2011 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: Julie Bass, home gardening, health news

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(NaturalNews) The anti-food tyrants are at it again, this time threatening a Michigan woman with fines and jail time for her "crime" of daring to plant tomatoes and peppers in her front yard. Your help is needed to take action and fire off an avalanche of complaints against the local bureaucrats in Michigan who are threatening this woman (see action items below).

This story involves a woman named Julie Bass, whose front yard was dug up during sewer line construction. After the construction project was completed, instead of planting grass, she thought it would be far more practical to plant a vegetable garden. Watch the brief news reports on this at:
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=1D577A9747...
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=09F5170370...

Vegetable gardens not only provide organic, high-nutrient live foods to those who grow them, studies have also linked gardening to enormous health benefits such as sharp reductions in the risk of breast cancer (https://www.naturalnews.com/025280_cancer_bre...) and even lung cancer. They also create an environment of food security while promoting eco-friendly practices. There's no food that's more "local" than the food grown in your own front yard, right? It's good for public health, great for the environment, and fantastic for teaching children useful skills that get them out of the house and away from the X-Box.

Thou shalt not grow food in Oak Park

None of this seems to matter to Kevin Rulkowski, the city planner for the city of Oak Park, Michigan. With a nasty arrogance that seems to be increasingly common among ignorant bureaucrats, he complains in a video news report that Julie Bass's garden is in violation of city code and Julie has to dig up her entire garden or face punitive enforcement actions by the city (which could include jail time).

City code says, "All unpaved portions of the site shall be planted with grass, shrubbery or other suitable live plant material."

But city planner Kevin Rulkowski, who really just comes off as an arrogant bully in his attacks on Julie Bass, proclaims, "If you look in Webster's dictionary, suitable means common. And you can look all throughout the entire city and you'll never find a vegetable garden that consumes the entire front yard." (http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=1D577A9747A66F...).

Hold on a minute, Mr. Rulkowski. Suitable does not mean "common." Suitable means appropriate within the context in which it is being used. Check any dictionary and you'll see the definition of "suitable" being either "appropriate" or "proper."

Even the Webster's dictionary Mr. Rulkowski quotes in his news report doesn't define "suitable" as "common." It defines "suitable" as "proper, able, or qualified" and gives examples such as "The dress was a SUITABLE choice."

Well what could be more suitable to a family with a yard than teaching children how to grow some of their own food right at home? That's suitable! It's the most suitable (and natural) thing in the world, in fact. What's weird is to grow nothing but grass and then spray your lawn with toxic chemicals to kill all the weeds, and then mow the lawn every week burning up fossil fuels and polluting the air just to keep your lawn manicured. That's bizarre (and terrible for city air quality, by the way).

Gardening, on the other hands, is eco-friendly, health-friendly and great for the air quality of the city! What could be more suitable to a city than people growing more of their own food right at home, right on their front lawns?

Oak Park hates veggies?

To be an opponent of a home garden is to be an enemy of the environment, an enemy of food freedom, an enemy of self reliance and an opponent of the rights of the People to pursue Life, Liberty and Happiness.

Mr. Kevin Rulkowski, who can't even get his dictionary definitions straight, maintains his arrogance: "I told her don't do it. And she went ahead and did it anyway." As if Julie Bass is somehow supposed to grovel at this bureaucratic parasite's feet and lick his boots because he pretends to be in a position of authority.

Kevin Rulkowski is like every other mindless bureaucratic tyrant running around America or any other country: They are useless parasites on society who actually harm people while collecting public dollars as their own wages! The city of Oak Park, Michigan would be better served by firing this anti-gardening P.R. disaster before he gets any bright ideas such as banning fruit trees or edible flowers. As a spokesperson for the city of Oak Park, the guy is a shining example of how to not conduct public relations.

He also just looks kind of heartless and mean, you know? ...As if he's been living on processed junk food and hot dogs. I guess for a paper-pushing bureaucratic whip cracker, that's a "suitable" diet, eh? But growing your own food isn't suitable at all in his mind. Of course, he's perfectly fine with pavement. Lots of pavement. You can't have living vegetables in your front yard, but you can pave the entire yard and he's be fine with that! (Seriously, what kind of pathetic, hate-filled anti-lifer prefers pavement over fresh, living garden vegetables?)

So now Julie Bass is facing a jury trial and possible jail time for daring to stand up to the tyranny of miscreants like Kevin Rulkowski. The trial begins in a couple of weeks, and the outcome remains in doubt. (You can help, see below.)

If you haven't already, watch this video on NaturalNews.TV to get the full story:
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=09F5170370...

Help Julie Bass defend her natural right to grow garden vegetables on her own property

I am requesting your help in coming to the aid of Julie Bass, who seems like an intelligent, decent human being who was basically just minding her own business and growing some veggies on her own property. (To even think that this is now a CRIME in America is just sickening.)

I urge you to join our avalanche of phone, fax and email complaints to the City Planner's office in Oak Park, Michigan. This avalanche will be taking place across three days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (July 11th - 13th). Here's what to do:

Action Item #1) Sign the online petition!
It already has 14,000 signatures (as of this writing) and lots more on the way!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/oak-park-ha...

Action Item #2) Complain loudly to Kevin Rulkowski, the condescending bully city planner in the news video who is harassing Julie Bass over her garden and threatening her with punitive action for daring to question his "authority":

Phone: 248-691-7450
Email: [email protected]

Be sure to CC the City Manager Rick Fox who needs to be kept in the loop on this so he can see how his entire city is now becoming famous all across the 'net for having the world's most moronic city planner who hates vegetable gardens:

Phone: 248-691-7406
Email: [email protected]

If you wish, you may also cc the Mayor of Oak Park, Gerald E. Naftaly:
Email: [email protected]

Question: Is it really okay to email complaints to these people? Of course it is! They are public servants who are paid by the taxpayers. Their entire job function is to SERVE the public, to take your calls, read your emails and respond to public requests. That's why all their emails and phone numbers are openly posted on PUBLIC web pages. You're supposed to let 'em know what you think about the job they're doing!

Tip: Remember that if you email these people, they will then have your email address. To protect your email privacy, I recommend emailing them from an account that doesn't give away your name, such as a free email address (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) -- and even then, they will have your IP address. Absolutely DO NOT email them from your work email account, because some of these bureaucrats are so nasty and deceitful that they will actually call your company and tattle on you to try to get you fired. So be smart about where your emails are originating from. And as always, please do not threaten these people with violence. That is a criminal offense and in no way do we encourage that. Do speak strongly and firmly to voice your opinion, but don't cross the line into becoming a criminal yourself. We always encourage our readers to be polite but firm. And don't violate any laws such as the Patriot Act which can now get you thrown into Guantanamo Bay for merely emailing a fake bomb threat, for example.

You can find all the contact information for the city of Oak Park on a public web page at:
http://www.oakpark-mi.com/city_directory/ind...

Action Item #3) Listen to the Alex Jones this Thursday at 11am central where I'm scheduled to be the fill-in host for Alex, and I'm going to discuss this issue in greater detail live on the air. I'm hoping to have Julie Bass as a guest on the show, although I have no idea if she even has any interest going on the air to tell her story. Hopefully she will want to share her experience on live, nationwide radio so that others can join her fight for food freedom. (We're trying to reach her, but no guarantees... But if we can't get her on, we'll invite her attorney to join us instead...)

You can tune in to the Alex Jones show at www.PrisonPlanet.com this Thursday at 11am central (12 noon New York time).

Action Item #4) Read Julie's blog, which you will find at:
http://oakparkhatesveggies.wordpress.com/

She has a "donate here" button on the top of the page where you can donate to her legal defense fund (to help pay some of her legal bills). Please consider making a donation to this cause. She is now being represented by Solomon M. Radner, founder of Radner Law Group (in the Detroit area).

Action Item #5) Share this article with others so that they can be kept informed of how bureaucratic tyrants are attacking our natural rights to grow our own food, home school our own children and decide what kind of medicine we wish to treat our children with, too! We must continue to spread the word on freedom and stands up against bureaucrats, parasites and government tyrants who are trying to turn us all into criminals for growing veggies, selling raw milk or even growing rabbits! (https://www.naturalnews.com/032476_rabbits_US...)

Additional opinion and commentary on Kevin Rulkowski

In my opinion, Kevin Rulkowski is a snot-nosed bureaucratic parasite with asinine ideas and a complete disregard for personal freedom and environmental etiquette. He has single handedly made Oak Park, Michigan the laughing stock of the internet, and he has handily demonstrate both an astonishing lack of word sense (suitable means common? Huh?) combined with a world-class demonstration of bureaucratic retardation that can only be truly appreciated by watching the movie Idiocracy.

But it's not just Kevin who is the ass here, it's also the whiny, petty neighbors who called the city on Julie in the first place. "Oh my God, Martha! Did you see that neighbor girl! She refused to plant grass and she's GROWING VEGETABLES! For God's sake WHO GROWS VEGETABLES!? Call the city planner's office!"

These type of people are pathetic. TV-watching, lotto-ticket-scratching, microwave-dinner-eating "useless eaters." They lead pointless, predictable, conformist lives devoid of meaning, utterly lacking in respect or compassion for any other human being, and they lack the basic understandings of personal freedom that must serve as the foundation of any lasting society. It is precisely these kind of whiney, pitiful, pathetic excuses for human beings who are the reason America has gone downhill in the last two generations.

In the 1950's you would never have heard someone complaining about their neighbor having a garden in their yard. The idea would have been preposterous. What? A garden? Of course they can have a garden! Smart people grow their own tomatoes, didn't you know? What kind of moron complains about an organic veggie garden next door? I mean, seriously. Can we all please find a way to herd these people off a cliff somehow?

It is only today, in our artificial society, overrun by pavement, lit with toxic mercury fluorescent lights, cooled with artificial air conditioning, with our people fattened up on high fructose corn syrup and MSG and our schools dumbed down to the lowest common denominator of intelligence, that mainstream adult citizens have turned into such empty-headed crybabies that they have nothing better to do than complain about their neighbor growing food.

I don't know who the neighbors are who actually called the City Planner's office and complained about Julie Bass, but I'm willing to bet they are the most pathetic, brain-dead zombies who also take their annual flu vaccine shot and buy pesticide-ridden GMO food because "the government says it's all safe!" These people are just lining up to be Darwin award winners during the next societal disruption because they have no self reliance skills, no ability to think for themselves, and probably no physical ability to even lift a garden rake and move some dirt around with their own hands in the first place. They are planetary parasites who couldn't survive a week without spray cheese from a can.

Grow up, people! If the biggest problem in their life is that a neighbor is planting vegetables -- OH MY GOD! AL QUAEDA VEGGIES! -- then just wait until they experience the coming debt default by the U.S. government, or the hyperinflation of the currency which will send food prices into the stratosphere. It won't be long before people who grow their own food will look like geniuses while those who don't will be paying five, ten or even twenty times current prices for whatever food supplies they can get in the years ahead.

Why smart people are growing more of their own food

Planting a survival garden is one of the smartest things you can possibly do right now. I teach all these food preparedness skills, by the way, in a new course I just released, which you can learn about at: http://premium.naturalnews.tv/Be_Prepared_Fo...

One of the things I teach in my course is to watch out for all the non-preparers living around you who refuse to learn how to grow, harvest and store their own food. These are the people who will become a burden on you (and all of society) during any possible future disruption in the food system (crop failures, radical weather events, GMO catastrophe, natural disasters, economic collapse, etc.).

Guess who's likely to be standing in a food line when the next crisis hits? Kevin Rulkowski, the Oak Park city planner who thinks gardens are so ugly that nobody in the entire city should be able to plant one in their front yard.

I have advice for the residents of Oak Park, Michigan: When a food crisis strikes our nation, and Kevin Rulkowski comes to your door begging for food because he's starving, politely remind him that he's the government goon who actually threatened people for growing their own food. Then slam the door in his face.

Some people truly deserve what they have coming. Those who are true enemies of freedom, enemies of food, and enemies of self reliance do not deserve any help from the rest of us when the next crisis arrives. Let these people fend for themselves, without any seeds, stored foods, gardening skills or even a water filter. Let's see how well they do in the real world for a change, eh?

Sometimes Mother Nature has a way of removing people from the gene pool who simply aren't qualified to join the future of humanity; a future that MUST be based on distributed food production, front yard gardening, local food production, health freedom and a respect for the freedoms of your fellow brothers and sisters. When society can no longer tolerate people growing their own food in their own yards, that society is clearly on the brink of collapse. What could be more fundamental to a healthy community than local food production?

In opposing this -- and threatening an innocent woman with jail time for growing a garden -- people like Kevin Rulkowski are despicable examples of the devolving human race. In a world where survival means producing some portion of your own food in cooperation with your neighbors (who also produce something of value to trade with you), people like Rulkowski won't be missed at all.

In fact, in certain dystopian futures, people like Rulkowski become food! Soylent green, anyone?

Eck! No thanks. I'll take my yard-grown corn on the cob instead, thank you very much.