I get mail

It's another weekend of hard work for me! But sometimes I get e-mail from totally clueless individuals that turns out to be comic relief.

Yesterday I wrote about a natural gas company abusing eminent domain to build a pipeline. This afternoon, I got a hilarious response. It reads:

"I would respectfully request that before you post completely inaccurate information about the use of eminent domain you do a little research into its use. I would further ask you to thank Kinder Morgan, and every other 'for profit' utility, every time you turn on your lights, use your stove, drive a car or buy anything in America. Nothing would be possible without the use of eminent domain whether it was for a road, electric or telephone line or pipeline."

For starts, what I posted about eminent domain wasn't "inaccurate information." The phrase refers to government powers to buy land for public projects. It's not supposed to refer to corporations trying to get land at cheap prices for private projects.

For another thing, I worked for the phone company, so I'm familiar with how utilities work. I'm supposed to thank a gas company because it wouldn't agree to the land prices that landowners insisted on?

Here's what this is like: Suppose I'm out biking somewhere and see a house I like. So I approach the owner and offer to buy it for $1,000. But they reply, "Nope, it's $50,000."

So I decide to file an eminent domain suit against the owner so I could get the house at a cheap price.

The only difference between this preposterous scenario and the gas company's effort is that I'm just a poor working-class fella. The gas firm is a wealthy, powerful corporation.

Widespread eminent domain hurts the poor more than it hurts the rich. Simply put, public and private agencies don't want to spend much for land, and the poor have the cheapest land. Wealthier landowners have more clout. That's one of the reasons your local freeway displaced working-class neighborhoods instead of the country club.

Eminent domain is misused too often. If government or private industry needs land that belongs to individuals, they should negotiate - not bully folks into accepting a raw deal.