REAL Noblesse Oblige....and a Reaction to Eminent Domain

While greedy billionaire liars like Bruce Ratner continue to raid the public funds under the guise of 'affordable housing" another story emerges down south.

My grandfather helped convince the state of Georgia to purchase Jekyll Island and turn part of it over to the state park. For years there was some measured development, but otherwise the island remained pristine....enter the age of the greedy developer....who wanted to build luxury condos on the Island and like Ratner 'lobbied' the state legislature there....who were threatening to use eminent domain to take land away from a family who had owned it since 1775. From an email I received:

"the Devendorf family put some hundreds of acres of pristine Georgia coastline into an untouchable nature preserve rather than sell it to developers who told them they would pay over $100, million dollars for the property. The eminent domain law was threatening to condemn it as undeveloped land which would be a Georgia resource so they made a nature preserve which goes to Georgia Preservation protection. It has been in their family since 1775. How about that for 1 upmanship? The doyenne of the family said when the developers told her it would be their honor and their privilege to develop this untouched stretch of Georgia coast, she knew immediately what had to be done. How about that for noblesse oblige? "

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Almost unheard of in this age, is it not? Well, They may not have owned in since 1775, but there are some like minded folks with similar ideals on Pacific and Dean Streets.

But just how warped have our values become? A family who had owned a property prior to the American Revolution found out it could be taken from them at, to use Chuck Schumer's words 'the whim ' of a greedy developer.