Vision 2025: Tulsa’s Agenda 21 For Sustainable Development

by Kate Price, Co-Founder, Oklahomans for School Accountability
August 2, 2005

Most people in our part of the country have never heard of the United Nation’s Agenda 21 let alone the term Sustainable Development. With the many changes our society is facing on a daily basis it is imperative that society familiarize itself with all the terms connected with Agenda 21 as a member state (as the United States is commonly referred to) of the United Nations.

The internet is somewhat useful in giving a variety of definitions to Agenda 21 such as:

A plan of action adopted at the Rio Summit to promote sustainable development.

Program of action adopted by the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

A framework of political recommendations, designed to protect the environment and encourage nations to move towards achieving sustainable development in the 21st Century.

These definitions are vague never getting to the meat of Agenda 21 and what it means for Americans today and in the future. What I will attempt to do is give you a more complete picture of what that means not only for our nation but a little closer to home; right here in Oklahoma.

As Christians we know the Bible tells us that one day, before our Lord returns, the nations will rise alongside one another in the market place creating a global economic market and world governance (The Minor Prophets, Matt. 24, Luke 21, Mark 13 and the book of Revelation to name a few). The most common statement I hear from my brothers and sisters is “When it happens” or “If it happens”. I am standing here before you today to tell you it isn’t a question of “If” or “When”; it “IS”

Now, let me draw a picture for you. There is a beautiful city made of small clusters of houses connected to other small clusters of houses via corridors. Inside each of these small clusters is everything you would need to live from day to day and it’s all within walking distance with trails connecting your human settlement to places of work, worship, schooling, library, community center, parks, banking, food, medical, etc. As a matter of fact, some who live in these clusters actually make their home on the second floor of their business.

You are a family of six, such as mine, and during the summer you decide to take your family on vacation; you want to go camping! There is one problem; your family of six won’t fit into the only acceptable means of transportation, the Segway. Besides that, even if all six could squeeze onto it, the Segway’s battery life would never last the distance and traveling at 12 miles per hour would take a lifetime to reach the camp grounds.

The city’s transit system doesn’t travel to your destination because it only services your human settlement. You would use your vehicle but years ago fuel prices rose so high you couldn’t afford its use. Furthermore, automobile use is so highly regulated aside from high fuel costs that your vehicle didn’t pass the latest fuel emissions testing. Its use would be in violation of current standards. The standards are so high that you and your family may never be able to go camping this summer, next summer, or ever.

Does this type of social engineering sound like science fiction? I can assure you it is not. You see, this is a glimpse into a sustainable community. Of course I left out many details such as how inappropriate it would be for humans to go camping because of the harmful effect humans have on mother earth.

But nonetheless, this is what the United Nations environ-MENTAL-ist has in store for citizens of member nations by implementing Agenda 21, the action plan for Sustainable Development, in a community near you; in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

During the early morning hours of Friday, May 20, 2005, I made mention, as a guest on KFAQ, that Vision 2025 is all over the world; a national and international agenda. Further research showed me that it was no coincidence, as I have been told by Karen Schafer, President and CEO of Tulsa Global Alliance, and now also by Karen Keith of the Mayor's office and a co-founder of TulsaNow (sustainable development organization affiliated with the Visioning process and represented on two of the many committee's of Vision 2025).

Please take a moment to type in "Vision 2025" into a Google search and see how many links there are today. Google varies on the numbers of links to Vision 2025. Some day's it will be a little over 300,000 and on a good day there will be over 600,000 links.

From those links, I randomly picked five cities nationally and five cities internationally and started a comparison with them and our Vision 2025; one that is still ongoing. My finding is that all the Visions are identical and the concept on the surface is non-threatening until you take a closer look at the origin. To better understand what has taken place, the source of all of our frustration, one must understand the term "Sustainable Development" which is the philosophy behind what has become known as our Vision 2025.

Sustainable Development is: "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Source: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Division for Sustainable Development). This was birthed in Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on the Environment and Development; aka, the Brundtland Report, 1987. You will see this philosophical thread through out ALL UN documents. The United States, remember, are a member nation and have agreed to tenets the United Nations has set forth.

In itself, this definition seems harmless until one looks a little closer at the many documents provided by the UN. Let me now give you an example to further explain from the UN as to what is involved with becoming 'sustainable'. In "Taking Action for the Earth's Future" Johannesburg Summit 2002, they reveal themselves a little with their intentions as they state, "Significant changes will be needed - in decision making at the highest levels, and in day-to-day behaviour by producers and consumers-if we are to reach our goal of (sustainable) development that meets the needs of today without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs."

They are stating that our government, at the national and local level, will need to change. That isn't all. Producers and consumers MUST change their behavior as well. Don't look over that. YOU ARE either a producer OR a consumer OR you are both. There is no in-between; they have covered everyone with that small insignificant statement!

Now that we know there needs to be "significant changes in our behaviour" at all levels of society, how do they plan on making sure that happens? It will be accomplished through public/private partnerships and Non Government Organizations (NGO's). I'm sure that you have recognized the various entities in our city that have a great amount of influence in decision making that are not elected by the people of this city and for the most part, we are kept in the dark as to their going's on behind closed doors.

Here is an example of an NGO in partnership with city, state, and national government. Sister Cities International, whose slogan is, "No Borders; No Boundaries: A World of Possibilities". The Sister Cities International September/October 2003 newsletter front page article titled, "Networking for a Sustainable Future" defined sustainable development as, "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Does this sound a little familiar? Yes, this is the identical term and definition that came from Our Common Future/Brundtland Report of the United Nations.

Now the question is this; is Tulsa a member of Sister Cities International? We are, and I know that you are aware of that but you might enjoy this image of our mush god loving mayor in a picture from City News titled "Ten-Gu Peek-a-boo!" concerning one of our sister city partnerships. Caption under the picture you will see stated that Tulsa Global Alliance is the NGO that arranges the agreement's between the City of Tulsa and international cities.

According to their web site, we have a total of six Sister City agreements around the world. One Sister City, Celle, Germany, it appears Tulsa somehow assisted them in the establishment of an American style university", but doesn't explain if that was through advice or tax dollars from the citizens of Tulsa. At this very moment I spoke with the past chairman for Celle, (pronounced Sella) Germany, Wolfgang Becker of Pryor, and asked him how we helped in "the establishment of an American style university" and he stated Celle's local Chamber of Commerce sent one of their representatives here where he spent considerable time receiving advice from TCC, OU Tulsa, and OSU-Tulsa. To Mr. Becker's knowledge, he is 99.9% sure there was not any tax dollars used in that assistance.

Nevertheless, the mission statement for Tulsa Global Alliance says it all, "The world gets smaller all the time. We cross oceans in a few hours and information traverses the globe in a few seconds. A global economy is changing the way we live. The citizens of Northeast Oklahoma play an important role in building the understanding that is essential in an increasingly interdependent world.

Tulsa Global Alliance is a non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to increasing global awareness, understanding and opportunities in Northeastern Oklahoma by hosting international visitors, facilitating Sister Cities activities, promoting global education, assisting with international trade development, cooperating with international organizations and serving as a resource for area governments, businesses, educational institutions, organizations and residents.

Tulsa Global Alliance is the result of a merger between two organizations that have been bringing the world to Tulsa for over 20 years, the International Council of Tulsa and Sister Cities International of Tulsa. The merger has produced a vibrant organization dedicated to promoting international programs which benefit the Tulsa area community.

Tulsa Global Alliance programs are supported through the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the City of Tulsa, private contributions and fundraisers." It would not surprise me if we have spent federal as well as local tax dollars to support this initiative as the above statement indicates.

Before I move on to the guts of this agenda, I want to draw your attention to the opening paragraph of Tulsa Global Alliance's Mission Statement which said, " The citizens of Northeast Oklahoma play an important role in building the understanding that is essential in an increasingly interdependent world." This is a word familiar to most but to draw a better picture of what is being said I will go ahead and define the word, "Reliance on people in other places for goods, information, resources, and services". Another definition states, "A relationship in which things depend on one another for survival". An example we see is our dependence on foreign, Muslim oil.

What has that given us but heart ache and trouble to be 'interdependent' with other nations? WHY would we want to create interdependence when God has blessed this nation with every good, service, and technology there has ever been? I, for one, do not want to be bed fellows with my enemies!

Please take a little time to look over the various people who make up the board of director's of this organization. It reads as a who's who of Tulsa. Tulsa Global Alliance Board.

Now, back to the "transformation" known as Sustainable Development that MUST take place. At the Earth Summit, Rio De Janeiro they spoke more on the transformation taking place in all societies around the world, "Governments committed themselves to just such a transformation, and to Agenda 21 as the comprehensive plan of action for getting there." and "The summit must bring the world together and forge more cohesive global partnerships for the implementation of Agenda 21."

The question still remains, is Tulsa implementing Agenda 21 for Sustainable Development? Since Tulsa city leaders are not going to come right out and tell the public they are implementing such a program, I decided to make a few phone calls to individuals who would know.

On Tuesday, June 14, 2005 I contacted the USDA Council on Sustainable Development Chairwoman, Adela Backiel, Director of Sustainable Development and Small Farms at the Department of State. She was delighted to speak with me and was very open with information she had, which was limited. She let me know that under no uncertain terms, no city, state or national organization would give me a definitive answer of yes or no as to whether we were implementing Agenda 21 for Sustainable Development; just as I suspected. She did, however, state she would be looking into it and if we indeed were implementing Agenda 21, she applauded our city for doing so. Where do we go from here?

A particular organization, Freedom 21 Santa Cruz, has done considerable research in the area of Agenda 21 and Local Agenda 21 (a.k.a., LA 21). They have recognized certain 'buzz' words that help one to identify if their city/town is implementing this new form of government/philosophy. Some of them are:

Partnership building,
Consensus,
Urban Redevelopment,
Community Infrastructure,
Community Development,
Land Use and Environment,
Maintaining a strong, diversified local economy,
Heritage corridors,
Tax-free Zones,
Use of Eminent Domain,
Regional Government,
Regional Planning Boards,
Smart Growth,
Comprehensive Planning,
and Visioning Process.

This is not a complete list, but it gives you an idea of some of the terms Tulsans do hear on a regular basis.

For the sake of time, I will only go over those underlined in bold black. What is Regional Government? According to an article, "Regionalism is Communism", written by Charlotte Iserbyt, former Senior Policy Adviser in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education during the first Reagan Administration; she writes," Jo Hindman (The Metrocrats, Blame Metro, and Terrible 1313 Revisited, Caxton Printers, Ltd.) where regional governance cannot coexist within a republican form of government since regional governance does away with or dilutes local representation and eliminates borders between towns, counties, states, and even countries.

The latter can be observed in Europe with nations ceding their sovereignty and distinct cultures to the European Union (region), which former Soviet President Gorbachev enthusiastically refers to as the "New European Soviet". Gorbachev also said in a speech to the Soviet Central Committee on November 2, 1987 "We are moving toward a new world, the world of communism. We shall never turn off that road."

I would like to add, not only can a republican form of government not coexist with the concept of regionalism (communism) but Christianity CANNOT coexist with communism; they are like oil and water. Let the Bolshevik Revolution (and many others) be a history lesson for all Christians, communism is not our friend.

Next question; do we have a Regional Mayor? According to The Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma's web site, "LaFortune said efforts to bring new projects and attractions to the metropolitan area should include possibly consolidating some city and county services, such as parks and law enforcement where there appears to be duplication.”

"That's something I'm very open to looking at," LaFortune said. "This whole idea of regionalism and being a regional mayor -- I'm very excited about it.” Susan Hylton, World staff writer, can be reached at 581-8313 or via e-mail at susan.hylton@tulsaworld.com.(2/06/2003)

Vision 2025; is it our mayor's vision? No, it is not his vision; there is nothing new about it. Here are a few examples: About Tulsa's Vision 2025, "The package called “Vision 2025: Foresight 4 Greater Tulsa” was the culmination of a long and arduous effort to grow economic and community infrastructure for future generations.” Do you hear the philosophy? Even though it has been time consuming, I hope you understand now why I have taken so much time laying ground work so you can recognize the "paradigm shift" taking place.

Remember how this was sold to the public? They told the citizens if they didn't pass this tax measure, in twenty years Tulsa would dry up and blow away!

Passing a tax measure to save a city doesn't even make common sense! But that is what they did, they used the Delphi technique by creating a problem, and rode in on their white horse to save the city and solve the very problem (with increased taxes) they themselves have created. By the way, during the Educating Tulsa seminar, Councilor Mautino (who is my councilor) whispered in my ear that the day the citizens voted for Vision 2025 the Mayor stated the voter's had given him the authority to be a regional mayor - thus a new paradigm.

Tulsa Vision 2025 - create a more walkable, bicycle friendly community. The system of sidewalks, trails and bikeways will link neighborhoods, activity centers and communities, and provide a safe transportation alternative which encourages exercise and fitness thus enhancing the overall quality of life.

Maroochy 2025 home - Our communities are connected by efficient public transport, and walk and cycle paths.

ANAHEIM VISION 2025 - Development of trails and paths throughout the city link residential neighborhoods to schools, parks and activity centers...parks , libraries and community centers...where feasible, is linked by walkways and bikeways that provide residents with convenient access to these important community features.

Michigan - Chocolay Residents Help Create the Vision for a Sustainable Community in 2025 - Prepare educational material for citizens and developers on the health benefits of having a walkable community and on techniques to make new and existing developments more walkable and bikeable.

A Vision for Scotland’s Communities - Our Vision is for a Scotland where each community has a network of paths which encourages people to walk, ride and cycle from their door delivering health, community, economic and sustainable transport benefits for all.

More recently, in a Tulsa World article, Sunday, July 24, 2005 written by World staff writer, Susan Hylton, Commissioner Bob Dick is quoted as saying, “We saw a wonderful coming together during Vision 2025 with all the local governments, and I fear that that is starting to crumble, and I still think it is very worthwhile for us all to work together,” said County Commissioner Bob Dick, fresh from a conference in Hawaii where county officials from around the country pondered issues such as globalization.

“The fact is globalization, regionalization – don’t fight it, try to figure out how to manage it and make it work for you…”

Can you say “Treason”? Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of The English language defines treason as, “Treason is the highest crime of a civil nature of which a man can be guilty…In general, it is the offense of attempting to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance, or of betraying the state into the hands of a foreign power.”

I think you are getting the picture. But, does this link it to the United Nations Agenda 21? Remember, Agenda 21 is only the Action Plan for getting to a more sustainable world and regionalism IS the vehicle for sustainable development.

Principle 8 of the Earth Charter (United Nations Constitution), "To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies." The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) goes on to say, "Develop more effective strategies to reduce private motor vehicle use; remove subsidies to unsustainable modes of transport." (World Energy Council April 16-18, 2001)

In March, and then again more recently on June 10, 2005, the media has been helping in the campaign to encourage the citizens to use alternate modes of transportation. Here is an example of such encouragement seen on News Channel 6 on March 18, 2005: "The city of Tulsa is looking for a way to save money, but still stay mobile. So Friday parking inspectors tried out the Segway Human Transporters. The Segways are battery operated and can travel up to 12 miles per hour. Currently city inspectors ride around in gas powered carts that guzzle at least three gallons of gas a day."

On Thursday, June 10th, News Channel 2 did a similar segment titled, "Commute Another Way Day" featuring the Mayor riding his bike to work and the "commute another way day" group was teaching citizens about "alternate modes of transportation" and in the background you can see a woman riding the Segway Human Transporter. A video of these news clips can be purchased from the news stations themselves or you can contact Newslink of Oklahoma, Inc. at 918-584-6397.

Amazingly, the Keynote speaker for the kick-off of the Vision Summit on July 9, 2002 was the founder of Futurist.com, Glen Hiemstra. In the article he wrote on Futurist.com titled "The Future of Cities" he writes in theme 2 and 3:

Theme 2: An end of the automobile era is a chimera, but at the same time cities of the future are working to become places where the auto is less dominant. This means planning for a variety of transportation and mobility alternatives, which will vary by what is already available in a particular city, along with local financial and political issues. Perhaps most of all it means beginning to transform streetscapes to become friendly to walking, as well as for bicycles and perhaps eventually for things like the Segway personal transport system. In many cities, especially suburban ones, this theme begins with the simple act of building sidewalks, which were sadly ignored for decades.

Theme 3: People underestimate how transformed cities can become in twenty years. For Kirkland and Tulsa we went back twenty years to find photos of areas of the city, to compare to today, so that we might imagine how much things can change over time. In both cases, we were surprised to see how dramatically various parts of the cities have changed, for the better or for the worse. If you create a 20-year vision, you can imagine very significant transformations, and major retrofitting of old neighborhoods and streets. In fact, you probably cannot stop such transformations. The only question is their direction.

To close, the Earth Summit - Habitat 2 Global Action Plan 2002, "Encourage the use of optimal modes of transport, including walking, cycling and public and private means of transportation , through appropriate pricing, spatial settlement policies, and regulatory measures...Coordinate land-use and transport planning in order to encourage spatial settlement patterns that facilitate access to such basic necessities as workplaces, schools, healthcare, places of worship, goods and services, and leisure, thereby reducing the need to travel.

Where did our Mayor come up with such a brilliant idea to destroy this Republic? From his membership with the U.S. Conference of Mayors who, in June of 2001, “adopted the Earth Charter and committed mayors (those with membership) to review it in relationship to their work.” It didn’t begin with his administration, but it is his administration that passed the regional package.

Your vehicle and mine, and many other resources we use everyday that I didn't discuss, are considered “unsustainable”. Your pattern of behavior needs to change and the elitists will do everything in their power to manipulate the public into changing those behaviors. Through deceitful marketing of tax measures by those who hold office, and by deceitful television programming, citizens will vote their rights and liberties away.

In the book of Genesis, Satan is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He is called that for a reason, he is good at what he does and we must wise up to the method of operation he uses. Ecclesiastes 1:9 "There is nothing new under the sun". The Mayor's vision is not new and it is not his. Let there be no doubt, Vision 2025 is our Local Agenda 21.

LINKS

TulsaNow - In February 2001, a precursor of TulsaNow was formed as a result of a conversation between four concerned citizens — Karen Keith, Linda Frazier, Marilyn Inhofe-Tucker and Roger Randle. Like others in the community, they expressed concern about the future of Tulsa and exasperation that voters had twice rejected major reinvigoration projects.

TULSA REGION - Use regional, national and global thinking for Dialog/Visioning 2025 that links to national resources and outside investment partnerships that are both public and private.

INCOG - Regional Problems - Regional Solutions - INCOG provides local and regional planning, information, coordination, communications, implementation and management services to member governments and their constituent organizations, working through a voluntary assembly of area elected officials. The council of governments is not a unit of government, but a voluntary association that comes together to build consensus in solutions to regional problems. The information INCOG provides assists both the public and private sectors in decision-making and in solving local and regional problems.

CESAR PELLI - International Academy of Architecture - NGO in Special Status with ECOSOC - United Nations. Leading Masters of the World Architecture - IAA Academicians and Professors - Major Theoretical Documents: Sustainable Architecture for a Sustainable World, 1994, Eco-Policies-Settlements for Sustainable Development,1996, Declaration on Education in Architecture,1997, IAA has approved Agenda 21,2000, and Declaration in connection with the tragedy September 11,2001, Declaration "Globalization and Identity in Architecture", 2003.

USDA SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT HOMEPAGE - USDA's sustainable development mission and policy is established by Secretary's Memorandum 9500-6, issued on September 13, 1996. The purpose of this memorandum is to state the Department's support for policies, programs, activities, and education in sustainable development and to establish a mechanism to coordinate these efforts across the Department.

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Division for Sustainable Development (ECOSOC) - National information includes information submitted annually in national reports by member States to the Commission on Sustainable Development. Also included are 2002 Country Profiles and 2002 National Assessment Reports prepared for the Johannesburg World Summit, as well as 1997 Country Profiles prepared for the Five-Year Review of the Earth Summit.

EARTH CHARTER COMMUNITY SUMMITS - US Conference of Mayors in June 2001 adopted the Earth Charter and committed mayors to review it in relationship to their work.

US CONFERENCE OF MAYORS - The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of the nation's 1183 U.S. cities with populations of 30,000 or more. Each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor.

FREEDOM 21 SANTA CRUZ - is a freedom policy center that celebrates the principles of self governance and individual liberty which inspired the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. We are individuals who advance the freedom of all by promoting and strengthening the practice of Constitutional administration in local, state, and national government.

REGIONALISM IS COMMUNISM - By Charlotte Iserbyt - "I'm glad I'm getting old and won't have to live too many years under this "failed" socialist system which for some reason unknown to this writer is being accepted by persons on the right as well as the left."

DELPHI TECHNIQUE - How it is leading us away from representative government to an illusion of citizen participation.

MARTYRS OF THE CENTURY - WorldNetDaily

FUTURE OF CITIES – Glen Hiemstra founder of Futurist.com. Keynote speaker at the Vision Summit July 2002 in Tulsa, Ok.

TULSA GLOBAL ALLIANCE – Board of Directors, Executive Advisory Board, Community Advisory Board and Staff - Dr. Robert Donaldson (CFR), Mayor Bill LaFortune, Sen. Ted Fisher, Dr. David Sawyer, Dr. Gary Trennepohl, Fred Ramos, Clifton Taulbert, Ken Busby and Rodger Randle

Kate Price is a Co-Founder of Operation Information.