Right to Live Life - Eradicating HOAs

 Over the past couple of months or so, I have been watching some videos about the notorious "HOA Karens."  While Karen may not be the actual person's name, the moniker as understood in modern jargon fits - a nasty middle-aged woman who wants control, micromanagement, and has a superiority complex against everyone different from her.  The "Karens" though are a bad and rotten fruit of a deeper problem with a more nefarious root, and that is what I wanted to talk about today.

In my thinking - as odd as it seems - if you pay your hard-earned money to invest in a home you will live in, then you should have rights to live how you please.  Obviously, there are some common-sense things to do, such as not trashing up your place with cars on cinder blocks in your front yard, or manufacturing controlled substances in your garden shed in the back yard, or playing loud, noisy sounds (music and otherwise) that create a disturbance for your neighbors.  That is all about just basic courtesy and respect, and a responsible homeowner doesn't do any of that anyway. So, what is the deal then with HOAs, especially those controlled by the stereotypical "Karens?"   Let's talk about that some.

In an episode of Duck Dynasty I watched a few years back, Jase Robertson had some issues with his local HOA - he wanted to keep chickens in his yard, as well as burning lawn clippings and dead leaves.  He was emphatically told "no" by the local HOA, and he protested.  His humorous monologue he delivered at the meeting in the HOA president's garage was perhaps one of the most hilarious things I have heard - "We are given the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and chickens make me happy!"  He then extolled the virtues of avian husbandry by noting that chickens get rid of nasty bugs that would otherwise be pests, they naturally fertilize the lawn, and when they outlive their usefulness, you can butcher them and put them in the pot.  In all honesty, Jase's argument was an example of good old-fashioned redneck genius, and he was technically right on all of his points.  However, while I would personally question having a flock of chickens in my neighbor's yard next door, there are honestly far worse offenses in the world than that.  This humorous segment of a hit TV show illustrates the hubris with which many of us view HOAs, and now I want to talk about that for a while.

An HOA (homeowner's association) is in principle an elected body of fellow homeowners in a given community who oversee the security and integrity of the community.  If an HOA actually does what it is supposed to do, it just makes sure the community is safe, that municipal codes are observed, and it also should encourage community cohesiveness in the form of activities and other functions.  The HOA then has the job of representing and advocating for the homeowners who are part of it, and if it did that, many people would not have issues with them.  However, the horror stories of HOA abuse and overreach have become the stuff of urban legends, and there are no less than a dozen YouTube channels about the notorious "HOA Karens," and the protagonists targeted by them.  The end of the story usually culminates in the HOA getting put in its place by a homeowner who has had enough of being abused simply for living life in their own house, and the conclusions of these stories range from humorous (such as wiring the "HOA Karen's" house to loudly play polka music when they open their refrigerator door) to macabre (one story had a "Karen" getting justice by becoming a 12-foot gator's lunch), but all of them contain the same message - HOA overreach is challenged, and the victims are vindicated in some fashion.  Therefore, while an HOA in principle is perhaps not a bad idea, its abuses and overreach are problematic and make it debatable as to whether they are really needed or not.  Let's talk about examples of HOA overreach and abuse.

Many HOAs tend to be controlled by micromanaging and totalitarian shrews (Karens) who get obsessed with "property values" and "community aesthetic," and instead of just enforcing common-sense measures, these boards resort to things such as penalizing people for a slight difference in the shade of paint on a mailbox, hanging a wet rug on a porch to dry, or some other stupidity such as the wrong color of flowers.  It seems like if a person breathes in their own house, they risk being fined or penalized for it. Many of those type of HOAs are more restrictive than Kim Jung Un in North Korea, as HOA tyrants tend to set up their own little kingdoms wanting control of every aspect of everyone's lives.  In the stories on the videos, often this totalitarian micromanagement conceals more dark secrets, as the "Karen" often is embezzling funds or doing something else criminal.  The thing about the worship of control is this - often it means the person who is possessed by that mania wants that control at any cost, and they don't care if they manipulate law or do illegal actions. This is also similarly true of politicians who seek after power for themselves instead of being a servant to their constituents.  And, an HOA is like a festering blister where such germs flourish.  And this is why I think the laws should be changed to eradicate the threat.

I truly believe that the HOA system as it exists needs to be overhauled and even made illegal.  I propose that the replacement for this be voluntary resident's groups who really invest in the well-being of the community.  Instead of worrying about the shade of beige on a mailbox, resident/volunteer groups would focus on things such as ensuring the safety of the community as well as finding ways to make the community actually a real community, and in doing so it would also preserve the personal liberties of the homeowners who are part of it.  No micromanaging, no fines or penalties, no overly-complicated rulebooks - those things would be made illegal and no one would be allowed to implement and enforce them. In the past we have talked about dignity of personhood as well as things that violate it - things such as abortion, euthanasia, racism, etc.   In the middle of that also sits overreaching entities such as HOAs or even corporate tyrants in workplaces - these individuals are evil, and there is no good in them because they seek to serve themselves and dehumanize everyone they come into contact with.  This is even true with people they try to impress - they will try to kiss butt with those they think will give them an advantage, but if that doesn't work out for them, they demonize and attempt to subvert the system.  The people who do this can be "Karens" on a community level, or they can be ruthless dictators of nations, billionaire oligarchs, or useless bureaucrats in government.  I am not sure if Dante had an assigned place in hell for such people, but I imagine that if he did it would be in the hottest part due to the damage they inflict.  Violating God-given personhood of another is a gross offense of justice, and it deserves maximum punishment - that is true whether the culprit is an overreaching HOA or a genocidal dictator. 

To conclude my thoughts and circling back to HOAs, I think those entities should be made illegal, and indeed, also restricted.  And, individuals who are willing parts of them need to be fully censured and restricted as well.  When a person invests their hard-earned money and labor into their own home, no one has a right to dictate stupid rules and minutiae to them.  That home is yours, if you paid for it and invested work into it, and you have the absolute right to live in it the way you wish without some outside entity dictating crap to you.  This is also true as far as just living one's life goes - God gave us free will, and the positive side of that is that we have the sovereignty to live our lives as we choose.  We of course respect that right for others too, and in doing so we just use common sense and an awareness of the common good to guide us.  Therefore, enjoy what God has blessed you with, and don't let anyone tell you that you can't!  Thanks again, and will see you next time.