American War Hero Dies After Being Cited By “Junk Police ”
Ken Freeman

Moss Dalrymple grew up in The United States of America, a nation that used to be known as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Moss fit that image.. He lived as a free man and there was no doubt that he was brave, for he was a veteran of World War II, Korea and Viet Nam.  He had the medals and the scars to prove it, but by the spring of 2007 he was an old man whose soldiering days were long gone. He had always been proud of his war record, but shortly before he died Moss told a friend, “I never would have fought a day, if I had known it would turn out like this.”

You see, Moss was a believer. He had always believed that he truly lived in “the land of the free.” The day he found out differently, it broke his heart, and he lay down on the land he loved and he died. Rumor has it that Moss had a great deal of land and money. But Moss didn't seem to care about money. He only seemed to care about the old cars and tractors and the antique motorcycles he collected. Truly, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”  To most people ’s eyes what he collected was junk, but to Moss they were treasures. He used some of them for spare parts in order to rebuild others and for whatever reason took great pleasure in owning them.

 

Moss could have lived almost anywhere he chose. He chose Alabama where the state motto is “We Dare Defend Our Rights.” He chose to live in the Alabama countryside where he thou ht that he could live as he pleased without being bothered. He just wanted to be left alone, alone with his treasures. Then one day Moss ’s world changed. Suddenly people didn't  want to leave him alone. Suddenly people wanted to tell him how to live and how his property should look. Suddenly he was no longer free. Suddenly he was under attack and he didn't know why.

The “County Junk Officer ” showed up at his door with a citation. It said Moss had ten days to remove everything from his property or the County was going to come and haul it away.

The next day a neighbor dropped by to check on Moss. He said Moss was so upset that he could barely talk.  The neighbor had offered to get his tractor and help out, but when he got back a few hours later, another of Moss' friend was there. The friend had found Moss ’s body lying in his trailer. Moss was dead.

Why had the county government come after Moss? Did somebody want his land or was it just because he was different and they though that they could make an example of him in their drive to impose “county-wide zoning?” About all anybody had ever said against Moss was that some people were supposedly “offended” by the look of his place. Maybe it was all the talk about “their” property values. Maybe it had something to do with all that Military Base realignment and Closure [BRAC] money coming to Alabama. Maybe with the price of metal going up so high, there is a profit to be made in the salvage business if you know the right people. Maybe it was one of these things or all of them, or maybe it was just that some people saw him as a defenseless old man who was in the way.

Sadly, maybe it was partly our fault too. Maybe it was partly because people have forgotten that freedom is a messy business, forgotten that “one man ’s junk is another man ’s treasure ” and that we must be somewhat tolerant of others so that all of us can exercise the right to pursue happiness in our own way. Maybe in this self-centered selfish world we live in, now, it is just too much to ask of some people to simply keep their eyes on the road or glance in the other direction when they pass by someone ’s property whose dream is different from their own.