Tim Carter vs Gregg Carson on Agenda 21
Many thanks to the Andover NH Constitutional Freedom Alliance for hosting this “debate” between Tim Carter of Meredith, organizer of the Lakes Region Tea Party, and Gregg Carson, Field Director of NH HUD, (Housing and Urban Development) regarding the “Granite State Future” program.
We appreciate the work of Ed Comeau, a spectacularly talented videographer. His website contains more videos of other meetings of importance.
Please visit http://www.granitestatefutures.org/ for more information on the Granite State Future program, the plan to implement Agenda 21 locally in NH.
Critique of video:
In his introduction, Carson first spent a lot of time convincing people he was a ‘conservative’. One attendee made it clear how calculated that seemed and said he felt it did not matter.
Carson claimed he was not there as a representative of HUD, but nevertheless he takes money from HUD, so we have to assume he approves of their programs.
Carson lost it when he used the word “conspiracy theory” with regard to the concerns of those who brought up Agenda 21. This is the same old tactic to discredit an argument before it even starts. It proves Carson was not prepared with valid arguments to support his positions.
Carter on the other hand, did not talk about who he was to justify his positions, but instead, gave evidence of all the things we are questioning, things that come straight from FACTS using GSFs and RPCs own documents (sources of money, the true origins of the program, the requirements of those who take the money, the way the sessions are conducted, etc to name just a few things)
Carson claimed the RPCs are not funded except by grants, but they have huge operating budgets (outside of the grants!!!) funded by our tax dollars, as we saw from Tom Flaherty’s wonderful prior research. Some have operating budgets as large as $1.5M, pretty good for being “advisory-only” eh?
Funds from GRANTS pay for the GSF program but the towns are NOT free to do as they wish with the money, DESPITE the numerous “listening sessions” that pretend the ideas came from the community. The grants contain specific outcomes that are REQUIRED. So whatever happens at these listening sessions matters NOT no matter how much Carson tries to say the ideas come from the community. Further, we have heard from RPC members that they will go ahead with the plans no matter how much they are opposed. Fact is, all these plans are completely similar everywhere in the country, and the world!
Towns cannot do anything unless it fits into the regional plan… approved by the feds. And that plan has already become a “done deal” as the grant has been signed.
Who does Carson think he’s kidding?
He said he wasn’t going to debunk Agenda 21, still pretending that it doesn’t exist and that people don’t know what it is.
There you go. If you won’t even acknowledge the existence of something, then you won’t have to debate its existence, or its merits.
And you don’t want to debate its merits, because it doesn’t have any.
And obviously, since one of the biggest complaints is that these listening sessions are dog and pony shows to supposedly talk about things that are already in play thanks to a signed contract, is that not a red flag? Why are PR firms and listening sessions even needed?
Carson tried to quell the fears of one woman who realized that one of the Water Sustainability Commission’s goals was to take control over all water resources in NH as property of the state. He claimed he would stand with her for her rights to her private well. She replied that if he was going to stand up for her rights, he wasn’t doing a very good job of it (by representing HUD I assume she meant).
Carson later suggested we talk to the people who represent us on our RPCs. Some of us have done that, and sadly, these folks still believe that regionalism is only about sharing firetrucks.
Carter made the point that almost all of your elected officials have no say in the GSF program. The RPCs are another layer of government that bypass them. And those plans, conceived by the federal government, are going to align with each other so that they are uniform all throughout the state. Carter read a lot of the program’s own words, for example, on the GSF website it even says this: “Traditional Settlement Patterns & Development Design – keep the traditional New Hampshire landscape intact by focusing development in town centers and village areas, while leaving open and rural areas for agriculture, recreation, and other suitable uses.” And just who is to decide what those other suitable uses might be? Is building one of them, or is that considered “sprawl”?
Mr Carson claims he and others in the federal government don’t know what Agenda 21 is. We suggest they go to the state department website and read up on it. Here is a direct quote:
“Good governance at all levels is critical to our ability to make good on our Agenda 21 commitments. While national governments will make the political commitments, we rely upon regional and local governments to implement new policies in the context of local situations, to enforce environmental regulations, to innovate and adapt solutions that will succeed in unique environmental, social, and political realities. Some of the most creative solutions to our sustainable development challenges are emerging in the U.S. from our state, regional and local governments. We should encourage communities to do integrated planning, to develop sustainability plans and a local Agenda 21.”