Tea Party Forum Focuses on Dangers of U.N’s Agenda 21

Locally based conservative group 405/605 Tea Party Patriots put on an event Saturday at Leisure World to oppose local and state involvement in sustainable-living efforts.

The group specifically addressed the United Nation’s globally implemented program Agenda 21 in an educational forum. During the forum, speakers Rosa Koire, Warren Duffy and Orlean Koehle took turns informing audience members why they believe that Agenda 21, and plans like it, are slowly stripping away traditional American freedoms.

Agenda 21 was first introduced 21 years ago at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil. The objective of the program was to promote environmentally friendly solutions that would accommodate for the demands of increased development.  

However, in recent years, there has been a growing movement in the United States to ban even local government participation in sustainable-living programs.

Koire, a member of Democrats Against Agenda 21 and a self-proclaimed expert on the program, explained, “It’s a global plan implemented locally.” Koire said, “They call it communitarianism. That’s where the individual’s rights come secondary to the greater good of the community. It vilifies the individual for being selfish.”

Supporters of the program believe that it is vital to take steps within our own community to help preserve the environment for future generations. Koire, however, believes that the green movement is based upon artificial facts made up about an environment that is not truly in peril.

“Children are being terrorized with the idea that they are ruining the planet,” said Koire.

Also in attendance was Long Beach resident and small-business owner Marisa, who declined to give her last name. Like Koire, she doesn’t believe that there is a threat to the planet that requires government action.

“The planet can heal,” said Marisa. “We should be allowed to produce and benefit from the planet.”

Though Marisa does not consider herself member of the Tea Party, she has been attending 405/605 Tea Party Patriots meetings for a long time.

“I want to be educated,” Marisa said. “I can see the changes in Long Beach all around me.”

One of the many environmentally friendly implementations brought up by speakers like Koire, that Marisa was disappointed to see installed in her home town, were bike paths.  

Many of the attendees believe that bike paths, and other examples of green infrastructure, are forced upon them.

“I don’t believe in sustainability,” said Marisa. “I think it’s a plan to take away our freedom.”  

Though Agenda 21 is a voluntary and non-binding agreement, Dan Harlow, president of the Leisure World Patriots and an executive board member of the 405/605 Tea Party Patriots, believes it is a threat to the constitution.

“We started the (405/605 Tea Party Patriots) at St. Isidore Church based on traditional marriage and pro-life values,” said Harlow. “Now, we’re taking on new things.”