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Is Eminent Domain Truly Beneficial?

"Aggressive use of eminent domain also damages the social fabric of poor communities because the displacement of residents, businesses, and churches undermines social ties."(Somin 6)
Eminent domain: the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation. However, in many cases, the government does not pay the right amount of compensation that they should be paying. While others might say that eminent domain is only productive and beneficial for communities, I believe that statement to be false. The government acts in the same, selfish way as a casino. Once you enter a casino, you are manipulated into spending more and more of your money, until you are left with nothing. Similarly, the government manipulates and takes whatever they want, no matter who it'll damage in the long run. When something is taken from you like this, you feel like they left you with hardly anything, sometimes even nothing. They manipulate and claim that their actions will only promote the community. However, while some are being benefitted, usually the dominant white race, others are left in the dust. In most cases of eminent domain, minorities are the ones that are most affected. While the white race may be viewing the benefits of eminent domain as something as great as Gandhi, the minorities could be viewing it as something as destructive as a bomb. When the government takes from them, they are left feeling like lone rangers, with no one to support them. I believe that part of this lack of attention towards minorities is due to racial profiling. While our government may claim to be accepting towards everyone, I think that they unconsciously perform actions that prove that that is quite not verisimilitude. The groups and movements against eminent domain spark a fire within minorities. Ultimately, with this fire spreading, change will occur. 

Comments

  1. Sai RavulaDecember 15, 2019 at 4:40 PM

    I liked how you used the casino in the puzzle in order to make an analogy with the United States, expanding upon your ideas with the metaphor. I didn't think of such an idea when doing my paragraph, as I can only link the word with casinos relating to eminent domain and development.

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  2. Kyle JungDecember 15, 2019 at 9:44 PM

    Good job Sawyer! I like how you talked about eminent domain using the second puzzle. It was interesting to see how you used all of those words in your blog especially since I talked about eminent domain too, just did the first puzzle. The usage of the specific words or phrases was very smooth and it flowed well. I especially like how you compared the actions of government to those of a casino.

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