by AisA

Created on: October 31, 2008   Last Updated: November 04, 2008

No Walk In The Park

What on God's green Earth became of America's love of freedom and liberty? Is history no longer taught in the public schools? Does anyone know that we descended from the Sons of Liberty who were so enraged by government interference, petty by today's standards, that 200 of them, dressed as Indians, cheered by thousands, risked their lives to throw 3 shiploads of tea into Boston Harbor engendering war? Does anyone realize that when Patrick Henry said, "give me liberty, or give me death," he meant it? Apparently not, for recent history is replete with example after example of Americans capitulating to any and every bureaucratic dictate which are harrowingly coming at an ever increasing rate. I concern myself here with just one egregious example - specifically, your liberty to walk in the park.

While Americans can disagree over just about anything, I dare say they are in universal agreement regarding their enjoyment of our few remaining parks: the sheer pleasure of walking amongst the majestic oaks and pines or the rejuvenating effects of communing with the serenity of nature on a lovely autumn's day. Nevertheless, by virtue of our nannies at the NYS Department of Health, Connetquot State Park, among others, were closed everyday at 5pm for all of August through most of October because of the fear of the West Nile virus. I was personally chased down by an irate ranger in a pickup truck in mid-October for running on a trail at 4:50 pm, apparently under the doctrine of preemption, where he proceeded to address me as if I were an Al Qaeda operative. Now granted, West Nile can kill, there were 6 deaths last year (although mainly in the elderly or immuno-compromised), but this must be put into the proper perspective. West Nile fatalities were even less than the number of drownings at regulated swimming facilities, but we haven't closed our beaches ... yet; they were a tiny fraction of the number of pedestrians killed by automobiles, but we haven't outlawed the morning constitutional ... yet; and, thousands die each year of heart disease, but we haven't outlawed butter ... yet.

Each morning when we awake risk awaits us, but we are not children; we are adults, free to choose our own course, to decide for ourselves what risk is worth taking and what is not. To decide for ourselves if the very real and tangible health benefits, both physical and mental, of walking through our parks, far safer than our streets, exceed the minuscule risk of contracting a rare mosquito borne and non-contagious illness.

This is just one example of America's spineless acquiescence to the erosion of our liberties by an overreaching and bloated bureaucracy that makes us the unrecognizable and unworthy progeny of the steely men of our American Revolution. It's long past the time for Americans to relearn the value of their freedom and liberty, to embrace the ideal of individual responsibility and end the encroachment of the nanny state lest they begin tucking us in each night.

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