Recently I watched with amusement as the Chinese government attempted to show the world a sanitized version of life in Communist China during the Olympics.

Why, they even approved “demonstrations,” as long as the protesters obtained approval in advance. You’ll never guess what happened to the few brave Chinese souls who showed up to get their permits. That’s right, they were “detained” (i.e., imprisoned) until after the Olympics.

Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, decided to try the system, so he applied for a permit for some bogus cause to demonstrate, to see what the process would be like. After being sent to several different agencies that did nothing but request complex and detailed information that they knew he was incapable of getting and basically giving him the “runaround” (Chinese style), he finally asked in desperation, “If I go through all this, then will my application be granted?” The answer from the official, “How can we tell? That would prejudge the process.” Kristof then asked, “Has any application ever been granted?” To which the official responded, “We cannot answer that for that matter has no connection to this case.”

This might seem utterly ridiculous and outrageous to the average American, but to those involved over the last three or four years with the state of Oregon and Deschutes County in regard to Measure 37, it has an all too familiar ring, proving that you don’t have to go to Communist China to have your efforts thwarted and your rights trampled. It’s appalling that this is taking place in China, but inexcusable that it’s happening here in Oregon.

Have we reached the point in this state where we just flat out don’t give a damn about our senior citizens? Every state, county and city official from Ted Kulongoski on down ought to hang their heads in shame over the treatment of Marie and Laura Harry, the two 90-year-old sisters who are being held hostage by state and county government, and special interest groups as they continue to stall, as time and money run out on the Harry sisters in their efforts to develop their property under Measure 37. Most Measure 37 claimants are senior citizens, by the very fact that lands that they purchased in the ’60s predated the zoning laws making them eligible to develop their properties. It represents the core of the majority of the people submitting Measure 37 claims. Many are in their 70s and 80s, and many are suffering illnesses that can be painful and debilitating.

These senior citizens have invested enormous amounts of time and energy, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars (that most of them don’t have) in order to comply with the ever-moving goalpost that our officials laughably refer to as vesting.

And then on top of that, they have the audacity to tell people like the Harry sisters that their efforts may be in vain because their improvements could have been done in “bad faith!”

Is there any question about who’s potentially operating in bad faith here?

To take our senior citizens and require them as a group to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes over the course of 30, 40 and 50 years and then to deprive them of their civil and property rights, and cause them undue financial hardship and stress with endless hearings, and ever-changing rules and regulations, is morally reprehensible.

Does anybody operating with any degree of sanity truly believe that state and local officials have any intention of doing the right thing, and fast-tracking the Harry sisters and many other ailing seniors through this labyrinth of unintelligible double speak, contradictory rules and regulations before they die or become too infirm to enjoy what is rightfully theirs?

I would call upon any state, county or local officials involved with Measure 37 to lay aside their own personal biases, agendas and their dependency on special interest groups, and have the courage and personal integrity to allow, particularly our senior citizens, to have their claims expedited. To sit idly by and allow this travesty of justice to continue, and allow seniors to have their civil and property rights violated, is unconscionable.

A government that does not look out for the best interests of its senior citizens is ultimately a government that won’t look out for anyone’s rights other than its own, and that’s not what America is about.

I thank God for those men and women from the Revolutionary War to present who have fought for and maintained our freedoms, liberties and rights.

Those rights include property rights.