Locals reject UN.

This article in the LA Times talks about how our local community rejected World Heritage designation from the UN for a section of the county. World Heritage designation can mean quite an influx of tourism and popularity for the site. Which is often one of the selling points.

Now having been through that region, the Carrizo Plain is a very beautiful region and I can see why it was nominated. What struck me though is the politics revealed in the article. Take, for example, the following passage:

"I'm disappointed," [Geary] Hund said Friday. "I've talked to World Heritage site managers across the U.S. and none of them could think of any drawbacks. What a site gets is recognition and prestige, and those that aren't well-known stand to get increased agency attention and the possibility of attracting more money through grants."

Hund is listing fame, prestige, and money as the reasons San Luis Obispo county should have approved it. How is that the right selling point for a natural preserve? This turns it from the supposedly special designation into nothing different than normal business transaction, which isn't the point.

Reading on further we get to a more central argument, and that's summed up by Alberta Lewis (a member of the Carrizo Plain ranch family):

"I can see no intelligent reason to tie up any of America with the United Nations. Please, supervisors, don't give away any more of our country."

The UN is genuinely hated by large swaths of this country, and rightly so. As the UN exists to empower genocide and dictators and restrain the US and freedom, there's no respect left for it in major swaths of this country. I'm a little surprised it manifested itself here, but only in the locale not in the manifestation.

[Supervisor James Patterson] said the plan was derailed by "an almost-hysteria about the U.N. coming to San Luis Obispo County.

Again, it's not a hysteria in that the UN has done nothing to earn the respect of Americans. When a genocidal regime like Sudan is placed on a human right commission, a commission that cites America for violations, then why should we give a whit about it?

So, some of my local countrymen rejected it, which is a bit sad in that the plain is a great eco-tourism spot, but is also quite encouraging in that they stood up for what is right. And, face it, the UN (from corruption to supporting dictators to encouraging genocide) is on the wrong side of history.

Congrats to the people of SLO.