Yesterday, when I told you about how sad I felt when the county took some of my land to widen 82nd street in Hickman, these are the wild ditch trees I mentioned (not the actual trees, but the same type of tree). They were taken and the county refused to value them because they were not landscape trees. But they were beautiful in Spring, and provided a nice habitat for little critters. They meant a lot to me. I loved walking the gravel roads of rural Lancaster County! And those trees announced the coming of Spring.
I told you about my personal experience because I wanted to give you an idea how it feels to have your home taken by government--even for a legitimate public use. If having these wild plum tress (and a small strip of ditch land) taken caused me quite a bit of grief, how much more must it hurt to have your entire home taken for the benefit of economic development and Pfizer or General Motors! I understand how Ms. Kelo felt about her little pink house. It is like how Holmes described the doctrine of adverse possession of land:
"The true explanation of title by prescription seems to me to be that man, like a tree in the cleft of a rock, gradually shapes his roots to his surroundings, and when the roots have grown to a certain size, cannot be displaced without cutting at his life."
