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Sincerely,
Frank R. Wallace
Note: Several months after receiving this letter from my father and failing to accept his benevolent offer, Attorney-General Paul L. Douglas was impeached and later indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice.
The wind from the mountain started blowing harder than usual. It carried the words, faster than before:
For 2500 years, citizens from ancient Greece to modern America have sought to understand and judge those holding or seeking public power. The higher, more powerful the "authority", the more attention focuses on trying to judge that "authority". In fact, attention expands geometrically on ascending the power scale to the president of the United States. Yet, a consistent, reliable standard for judging power and authority has until now remained a riddle.
That riddle is solved by applying two metaphors: (1) Knowing the material world around us requires understanding the smallest atomic units. And (2) knowing the cosmos above us requires understanding its primordial origins. Now apply those two points to authority and power: (1) Knowing authority around us requires understanding the smallest authoritarian units. And (2) knowing the power above us requires understanding its philosophical origins.
Understanding authority begins by traveling far from the great concentrations of government authority -- traveling away from the eastern megalopolis, west to a small desert city in Western United States. By putting a microscope on that oasis of population, one can focus beneath its few, simple layers of authority. One can focus beneath the mayor, past the city council and paid government employees down to an unpaid, appointed planning commission. And finally, one can reduce that commission's microcosm of authority down to its most mundane exercise of authority -- the granting or denying of a minor zoning variance to a lone, uninfluential individual with a modest home needing a second bedroom for his family.
That property owner duly completed the proper forms, submitted blueprints, paid the filing fees, and presented the facts to the planning commission. He explained why variance was necessary not only to better the property, but to preserve one of the largest elm trees in the city. The owner detailed how alternative plans without the variance would neither be practical nor best serve the neighborhood. In addition, a professional urban planner -- hired by the commission -- found no problems or objections to the variance. He also concurred that well over half the homes in the neighborhood already had structures built in greater variance to the zoning ordinance than the minor variance requested.
Moreover, unlike the surrounding structures, the proposed structure was designed to beautify both the owner's home and the neighborhood. In addition, that would be done entirely at the owner's expense while providing local employment. And most important, a two-week notice posted on the property, an advertised notice in the local newspaper, and written notices mailed to all homes surrounding the proposed property improvement brought not a single objection. In short, everyone logically concerned supported the variance.
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