Free enterprise is one thing, burdening neighbors with the constant comings-and-goings of strangers is another.

I would say that local governments have a responsibility to regulate this sort of thing. After all, it is a business.

No tomes!

This is not Pravda….or a Berkley online philosophy class.

But, if everyone would just step back and think about the fact that like Liberty, the right to private property is reciprocal. Our right to benefit from the use of our property does not confer upon us a license to cause harm to our neighbors.

Our neighbors’ right not to be harmed by what we do is something most property rights advocates overlook. But, it, too is reciprocal in principle.

John Adams defined liberty as “a power to do as we would be done by,” which you may recognize as the ancient code of civilized society called The Golden Rule, a.k.a. the Principle of Reciprocity.

Property ownership is just one of the basic rights inherent in Liberty, like Life, equality, Justice, Individual Sovereignty, Conscience, Assembly, Association, Movement, Security, Property, Self-Defense and Pursuit of Happiness. It is well to contemplate the fact that in the time of the American revolution and founding, happiness was not defined as the pursuit of destructive pleasures, but self-improvement and well-being of body, mind & soul.

Each of these rights is related to the others, and if they are not all equally protected, then none of them are safe. Likewise, if anybody’s rights are not equally secure as everyone else’s, then nobody’s is secure.

In ancient times, land-use issues were solved in several ways. One of them was to let the neighbors decide. How the definition of “neighbor” is to be determined is the key issue here. In our time, here, we have the option of having a public hearing where everyone has a right to be heard before a local governing body makes a ruling. We also have an option of placing the matter on the local ballot for the voters to decide.

Any of these would be preferable than what Mayor Lightner is doing and the way she wants to do it.

Great. You peasants get to stay in those stinky retro hotels in Mission Valley and eat frozen waffles at free breakfast!