Subscribe by RSS
Gianni Longo holds an Our Smokies, Our Future flyer. (The Herald/ Archived Photo)
By Joe King, king@seymourherald.com
Gianni Longo, the independent facilitator of Our Smokies, Our Future, has a successful record in the field on visioning and urban planning, yet his history in the industry is what seems to concern many Sevier County residents about the process.
Although Longo did not return phone calls nor emails for a week after his first set of responses were published, he did later submit his responses and said he was not trying to be evasive.
“I want to rebuff charges made by Dr. Marc Hayes in installment eight of your series,” Longo began. “He states that a quote on page 58 of a report of the Forum in Barcelona ‘accurately describes’ my position. That attribution is completely false and for four reasons.”
... read the rest of the story by Subscribing now.
5 Comments
The report Longo references in the story as including dozens of presentations is correct, BUT he does not tell you that I quoted only the part of the report pertaining to his panel of 6 (pg. 57), not dozens; nor does he tell you that the quotation he disputes (pg. 58) is a report of Longo’s panel of 6 . . . the report indicating no dissenting Longo view. Once again. here is the quotation of the Barcelona report I used (pg. 58): “The people’s right to the city may be taken away. At the core of this are the critical resources of land, water, air, and energy. These elements must jointly belong to the people and should be removed from private control.”
Longo did not, in the report, disagree in 2004. Strange that he disagrees now.
Longo’s work is simply preparing the ground, using OSOF, to petition the local government to install sustainable development (Agenda 21). Once the government accepts the idea, applies for and accepts HUD and DOT taxpayer grants (with strings) from the federal government–then it is that Agenda 21 kicks in. Longo is simply the advertising pamphlet for the sustainable development (Agenda 21) manual. Technically, he is an enabler; he cannot fail to know that!
Marc Hayes, Ph.D.
Lieutenant Colonel
Army Corps of Engineers
U.S. Army (retired)
Enjoy reading these articles! Please keep covering this topic as it could affect our community greatly.
I’ve been following this series from the beginning. First, I want to say the reporter has done an excellent job reporting the facts, and has truly been fair to both sides of this issue. Because of that, I have come to the conclusion that Gianna is a huckster, and OSOF is the first stage in infringing on a property owners rights.
Gianni is one slick salesman who ingores the Truth in “Lending” laws and hasn’t been completely forthcoming to the facillitators
Our Smokies Our Future spokesman, Gianni Longo, characterizes his Sevier County opposition conspiracy theorists, and Littleton (Chattanooga) characterizes us as fearful of change.
If what these two dudes say is true, then the Alabama law protecting private property rights (anti-Agenda 21) in that state is a law aimed at an imagined conspiracy rather than a real one. And it just protects people who are afraid of change.
Is Lewis County’s rescinding of the Hohenwald “Transition City” program a measure aimed at an actual conspiracy, or is it a measure serving those who only believe in a conspiracy? Again, the answer is self-evident.
Of the 100-plus U.S. jurisdictions–since January–that have extricated themselves from variously-named UN/U.S. “sustainable development”/ “livable communities” programs
. . . are they extricating themselves from something real or imagined? The rational answer is “real”, not “imagined”!
Sevier and Our Smokies Our Future–they, too, are real. And like Hohenwald, like Alabama, like 100-plus additional U.S. jurisdictions–Sevier will one day soon have to remove itself from what OSOF will morph into . . . yet another UN/U.S. so-called sustainable development, livable community.
First of all I would like to thank Joe King for his work covering both sides of the OSOF question. He has far surpassed the effort made by any other media organization in the county and is to be commended.
I have been to five of the OSOF meetings. It’s amazing how our “spontaneous” meetings here in Sevier County are exactly like ones I watched on videos from other areas of the country. It’s amazing how the little electronic voting devices that will be used on Tuesday are just like the ones used in other areas of the country. Spontaneous? Or straight from the pages of playbook put out by the UN on Sustainable Development?
The local facilitators even use the same words and phrases as facilitators in other areas. Coincidence? I think not.
Sevier County – get ready. They are coming at us with the full force of a program that will lead to a loss of personal property rights in the name of “saving the environment.”
After well over 10 years of study and research of the devious work of the United States to subjugate the sovereignty of United States citizens, there is no doubt that Sevier County is a prime target.
The National Park has already fallen under the UN umbrella with the International Biosphere designation. Dr. Hayes pinpointed the problem exactly with the quote from the Barcelona report. “Land, air, water and energy must be removed from private control.” Please read that and reread it. Can it happen here? That is the question on the table at OSOF.