February 25, 2014
En route to Colombia
Li Mi-Yung just wanted to be free.
This 55-year old widow in North Korea had spent the last 18-months building up an off-grid residential homestead. She was, for the most part, fully independent.
She collected rain as a source of water. She had her own waste disposal. She generated her own electricity from the sun.
Sounds pretty admirable, right? Especially in a place where so few people are independent.
Unfortunately, upon finding out about Ms. Li’s living situation, the local authorities in North Korea dispatched entire teams of government workers to Ms. Li’s home, attempting to evict her and haul her in front of a tribunal.
Truly despicable. You’d think that the North Korean government would be eager to learn from her so that everyone else’s lives could be improved.
But alas, what else can one expect from the government of North Korea…?
There’s just two minor corrections I need to make to this story before I go on, though.
Li Mi-Yung is really Ms. Robin Speronis. And she does not live in North Korea. She lives in Cape Coral, Florida… in the Land of the Free. Everything else is true.
Yes, rather than try to learn from Mr. Speronis in an effort to improve the city’s public services, she was apparently branded as some kind of criminal mastermind who must be stopped at all costs.
When they heard last November that she was living off-grid, the city posted a notice of eviction, citing numerous code violations. They concluded that her dwelling (which she had been living in since January) was “unfit for human habitation.”
Furthermore, she was told that continuing to live at (or even ENTERING) the property would constitute misdemeanor trespassing and subject her to arrest.
Days ago, the case was heard in front of a special magistrate. City officials read off a seemingly endless list of code violations, and expert witnesseses were paraded into the court to confirm her nefarious deeds.
Naturally. Someone who unplugs from the system can only be trouble.
At the end of the hearing, the judge waived his hand, finding her guilty of some violations, not guilty of other violations, and then ordered her to at least partially plug back in to the grid.
I wish I could use a word like “amazing”, “unbelievable”, or “incredible” here. But I can’t. Because this is now par for the course in the Land of the Free.
Collecting rainwater now constitutes a crime. Being free and independent gets you threatened with eviction and hauled into court.
In the Land of the Free, you are unfit to decide for yourself how you want to live. And the government has all the power in the world to forcibly bend you to its will, even if it means terrorizing citizens into using public utilities.
It’s quickly getting to the point where anyone who wants to take back any personal freedom is going to have to seriously consider heading overseas to places where governments leave you the hell alone to live your life in peace.
Yes, it’s a radical thought. But so many great civilizations before were founded by intrepid free men and women who left their home countries in search of liberty and opportunity.
Why not now?
