I love the line from The Honeymooners where Jackie Gleason calls himself the king of his castle.  No doubt that was always the thought process, at least back then.  When you were able to afford your piece of the American dream of owning your own piece of land and home, you definitely were the king of your castle and were able to live life on your terms and have some dominion over your private property and surroundings.  Sorry, but whatever rights you thought you had are long gone.

               Most of you want to protect your country and live in a place that has defined borders and that is safe from entry from people who want to cause you and fellow Americans harm.  But……… the lower courts said, even people who have never stepped foot into the United States somehow have constitutional rights and therefore, not even the President of the United States can keep people out that he deems a threat to America’s safety.  The United States Supreme Court ultimately disagreed and ruled with the President.

               In addition to your country, you also want to make sure your state and city are safe and secure.  You certainly don’t want people with criminal records and who are in the United States illegally, hiding out in the city in which you live.  But in many cities, your local officials decided to make your city a “sanctuary city” and deliberately help hide criminals who are here illegally from the federal authorities seeking to deport them. In response, the federal government has now threatened to take away federal funding from these sanctuary cities and we will see how that plays out in court.

               You don’t just want your country, state and city to be safe, you want your specific condo or HOA community to be safe.  You want the ability to ensure that criminals can’t move in.  Two years ago, non elected HUD officials passed new regulations that say “not so fast.”  Before rejecting your criminal offender, you have to do an analysis of several factors to determine if they are now rehabilitated and are no longer a threat to the people in your community.  Never mind that you are not a judge or a jury or a psychiatrist or parole or probation officer, you now must get to know the criminal and determine if a convicted rapist or murderer has now perhaps found god and won’t harm your neighbors should you let him move in.  Make the wrong decision and the murderer or rapist will have you and your association sitting at the defense table in a federal court courtroom, sued for housing discrimination.

               Well, at least you managed to save up enough money to buy your own home and move into a community that doesn’t allow pets.  It’s certainly your right to say that you choose to not live in a community that accepts animals.  Your governing documents even promise you those rights in writing.  That is until those same non-elected HUD officials wrote new laws that say you have to allow “emotional support” animals into the community.  And unlike service animals that must be a dog or horse, an emotional support animal can be any animal at all, like a squirrel, pig, hedgehog, snake or any other animal for that matter.  Too bad for you……like it or not, you will live with animals even if you spent your life savings specifically on a community that forbids them, even if you have a fear of them and even if you are allergic to them.

               Since it’s next to impossible to protect your country, your state, your city, or even your HOA, I guess the only thing you can do is pray that the home next door is ultimately lived in by a friendly or caring person or family with whom you and your family can get along with.  But state and federal laws now allow your next door neighbor’s home to be turned into a “sober home” or half-way house for recovering drug addicts.  And there’s not a dam thing you can do about it.  So now your children can learn the proper way to roll a joint, snort coke or shoot heroine, right from their own front porch.

So explain to me again how owning a home makes you the king of your castle.  Maybe back in the days when Ralph, Alice, Norton and Trixie were around and we were a different kind of country --- but certainly not any longer.