Julie Bass, Oak Park, Michigan Woman, Being Prosecuted for Planting a Vegetable Garden

After Julie Bass, of Oak Park, Michigan finished some repair work on a septic line, she decided to not replace the front lawn with grass, but rather, to install four garden beds, and grow vegetables instead. City officials there, for whatever reasons are bouncing around in their power-loving heads, have chosen to prosecute her for doing so.

According to myfoxdetroit.com, the mother of six made the choice to use her front yard for reasons which remain hers. (Remember property rights, folks?) And now, in spite of thousands of more pressing issues, the city is threatening the mother of six with 93 days in jail, for not fitting in and marching in lock-step with, everyone else.

Is Julie Bass a criminal for not looking like everyone else? On being questioned by local news reporters, Oak Park City Planner Kevin Rulkowski is quoted as responding "That's not what we want to see in a front yard." He references a city code which requires the good subjects of the city to only use ground cover which is "suitable, live, plant material."

A vegetable garden is inarguably both "plant" and "live," but the point which will hopefully cost Mr Rulkowski a cushy, tax-funded job is the meaning of the word "suitable." He claims in the video on my original source, "If you look at the definition of 'suitable' in Webster's Dictionary, it'll say 'common.'"

Well, by golly, this is the Internet, after all. So, let's do that! A visit to merriam-webster.com shows that there is one definition of "suitable" being "similar, matching." But that usage is also marked under "obsolete." For clarification, here's the definition of "obsolete," too, from the same source. Kevin Rulkowski invoked the name of Webster in his argument, and oopsie, it backfired.

The invisible 500-pound-gorilla-in-the-room is that Julie Bass is being denied her property rights, plain and simple. Please note: a) It's her front yard, b) she's doing something beneficial for her family, c) noone else is being hurt by her actions, and d) she finds pleasure in it.

So, where is the crime? Whom is Julie Bass hurting by having a vegetable garden in her front lawn? Does the city even have evidence of a complaining party? So many people pay lip service about watching out for "Big Brother," and meanwhile, "Little Brother" is destroying individual liberties and property rights, on the local level.

Rather than being caught up in the definition of "suitable," I'd rather suggest city employees, and other politicians everywhere come to grips with their issue of having a need to control others, in the first place. (Those with shoddy personal boundaries of their own, often imagine others being within their realm of control. It's unhealthy, on many levels.)

Julie Bass has just become one more of my favorite people. I offer this wonderful woman, her family, and anyone else being harassed by local politicians-on-the-take anywhere in America, my support. Julie Bass is more than just another name in a distant city. She's an American citizen who's standing up for herself, and deserves our support in resisting the average mindless bureaucrat. Julie Bass is you.