There’s a hole in the wall, where the wind can get in
And it’s been there for fifty-some years
It’s down near the floor, where it hardly gets noticed
Till a chase, when a mouse disappears
When wintertime comes, we can feel the cold air
And remember, that hole is the reason
But then something comes up; it’s forgotten again
And the hole sticks around one more season
So now, fifty years later, I finally thought
I might seal up that hole in my house
But while taking some measurements, strangely enough
I was stopped in my tracks—by a mouse!
“For fifty-some years”, he defiantly squeaked,
“We’ve been using this hole as our door!
Generations of mice have made trips through this hole
And we’re planning a great many more!”
“By leaving this hole as it is for so long
You have ceded all rights to repair it!
To you, it’s a hole, but to us it’s much more,
So the fact is, you’ll just have to share it!”
“This hole you’ve neglected is my hole as well;
Man and mouse have to just get along!”
I listened (astonished a mouse had just talked)
And I quietly told him “You’re wrong.”
A hole in my house is a hole in my house—
Fifty years doesn’t matter at all.
So I picked up my hammer, some nails and some wood
And proceeded to patch up the wall.
There’s a hole in the wall ‘tween the church an the state
And it’s been there for fifty-some years…
In yet another first amendment case, the Connellsville Area Schools were prepared to move a ten commandments monument that violated the establishment clause, but were persuaded by public outcry to fight to keep the monument. Yesterday, the FFRF filed suit.
Predictably, the comments are full of “Tradition!” and “Majority Rules!” and “Get a life, atheists!”. It feels like Cranston all over again.
Cranston?
Or Dover?
Or Scopes?
May it BE Cranston all over again, except with the school board conceding the case much less expensively.
I like it. Couldn’t read it without thinking of this, though. :D
What you describe, with the mouse, is sort of a prescriptive easement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easement#Easement_by_prescription
Not that that should apply to the situation in question.
It sounds like prescriptive easement is exactly what the town/school is suggesting.
Tell me more about why that should not apply…
Government or railroad owned property is generally immune from prescriptive easement in most cases
From the Wiki article.
Because, of course, real estate easements are enshrined in law…as is the separation of church and state. But you already knew that of course, and I’m sorry I brought it up.
Just watch out if your mouse gets a lawyer.
I’m fixing a hole where the wind gets in
To stop that mouse from wanderin’
Where it will go
Lorax, you have no idea what a struggle it was to keep that song *out* of my head while trying to compose this.