Not sure why the game of Monopoly always led to fights when we were kids. Someone would invariably cheat, the others would protest, and….there went the neighborhood!
Same thing goes on today in many American Homeowners Associations! Your new retirement community seems perfect, the dues seem about right. Suddenly, without notice the rules change. Monthly dues skyrocket from $180 to $500 a month, with even more hikes on the way.
When you weren’t watching the rules changed. They changed because a new developer or a new majority took over the HOA. Now, you suddenly find yourself foreclosed upon, or you’re priced right out of the neighborhood where you once had your dream home.
It’s been an interesting evening just casually surfing around the Internet. Haven’t done that for awhile. There’s just too much work involved in researching and writing my daily blog to go back to the casual surfing that I used to do.
But I’ve noticed that the recent hacker attacks that took down and trashed my website have actually ended up scattering 300 to 500 of my past web posts all over the Internet! My old webposts used to be pretty well organized and confined just to NeighborsAtWar.com. But a search of “ward lucas” or “ward lucas hoa” show that the “gods of the Internet” never forget anything. And a trashed website actually leads to multiple sites around the world spreading the message of our Homeowners Rights Movement.
One of the weblogs that was lost in my recent hacker attack is going to be re-written here, simply because I have a quick break in my schedule. No, maybe it’s because I’m a little bit bored right now. But it has to do with the recent incident where Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill was outraged after being manhandled by an airport TSA worker.
Dear Friends, I’ve spoken occasionally about keeping your sense of humor no matter what nightmare you’ve experienced. Yes, the battle against the national HOA scam can scar a person’s heart forever, but humor has the incredible power of healing the damage. And humor, in some cases, is more powerful than a nuclear weapon. Want proof?
United Airlines baggage handlers busted a guitar which (unhappily for United) was owned by Dave Carroll, a folk singer from Nova Scotia who has a finely honed sense of hilarious indignation. United refused to repair the damage to the guitar. And now there’s a song that’s gone viral. And another. And another. Now there’s even a book. And a speaking tour. A Google search turns up nearly four million hits. It’s all called, “United Breaks Guitars.”
“Though the Mills of God Grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small,
Though With Patience He stands waiting, With Exactness Grinds He All.”
Friedrich Von Lougou
That’s one of my favorite quotes from The Retribution, and it’s been pasted on my computer since my first blue and gray Kaypro, purchased in 1985.
Yes, Heaven’s grinding mills are as vast as they are slow, but sooner or later every full circle comes about. Not soon enough, we mortal humans cry, but they do come around.
