Caren and I arrive at dawn for a long jog along Bull Run Trail. The official group run won't begin for almost an hour, so we seek out one of the organizers and ask if it's ok for us to start early. He laughs at us and says, "This is America — you can do whatever you want!"

Well, not quite; there are unspoken qualifiers, limits on that blank check. And of course it doesn't just apply to the US of A. Nevertheless, there's also a great truth there. If (adult, sane) people choose to engage in peaceful acts, there really is no reason to interfere — especially when they consciously decide to shoulder the risks. Be fools! Get lost in the woods! That's freedom, isn't it?

_{(cf. Independence Day (4 Jul 2001), Personal Positivism (16 Nov 2002), All Good (13 Jan 2007), ...)}

TopicPersonalHistory - TopicSociety - 2007-02-26

(correlates: AuthorizedVersusForbidden, ThirdPlace, CertainExpression, ...)