The basic issue facing people today is there’s no more free land. It’s all owned, all controlled, all regulated. If you don’t buy or rent a piece of it, you are not just homeless, you are guilty of vagrancy and can be jailed for it.

That’s bad enough but if you buy a piece of land, you don’t necessarily get to build on it, improve it, live on it or even pitch a tent on it. That’s what Yavapai County Code Enforcers are telling folks in Ash Fork and other rural and undeveloped areas.

In many cases, enforcement of new and arbitrary rules are being applied to residents who have lived on the land for 50 years or more. Not just rules but fines. Big fines. Fines that get higher every single day and pile up so fast that people face bankrupcy. Soon most of the people will be chased off the land or simply impoverished.

What’s wrong with working to preserve a simpler, more natural way of life on rural land? Why does the state of Arizona recommend ecologically friendly technologies in rural areas and the county says we can’t build them? Why are county officials apparently changing zoning laws without public discussion? Why are they in fact legislating under color of law? Why have they threatened rural residents with arrest for what is clearly a civil matter?

We’re coming together to get answers and there’s no telling where the effort will take us.