----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 6:01
PM
Subject: RC: American River Ride
At 11:20 AM 5/3/00 -0700, Katee wrote:
park service(their rules sound
like they are made to prevent vagrancy, not endurance rides)
Katee you are a sweet soul, but think about
this: For the entire history of human kind campers have been sleeping
out under the stars in sleeping bags or less, in tents, in wagons, under
wagons, etc. etc. "Self contained vehicles" are a pretty recent
invention (I'm guessing 50 or 60 years old at best). How could it
in any way be considered vagrancy to want to camp out like this since everyone
involved was sleeping in - gasp! - a National Park where people go to
camp? Sleeping in "self contained" vehicles is just that - it's not
camping in the time honored sense of the word. People who have paid
entry fees for an endurance race AND a camping fee could not be considered
vagrants in any way shape or form
While the RM might have known and
done something prior to the race is a whole 'nother issue - what the Parks
people did was still out of line. AND - if RM had a whole year to
know about this regulation, the Parks dept. had a whole year to consider the
fairness of requiring "self contained" vehicles for a public
event. It is absolutely NOT RIGHT for the Parks dept. to make such
requirements, any more than it would be for them to say that only people with
Mercedes, Ferraris, BMWs, etc., etc. could drive through park lands.
This is NOT a fair policy, it is exclusionary and based on money, it is
setting a really REALLY bad precident , it makes parts of PUBLIC land (state
or fed, doesn't matter) inaccessible to the general population (most of whom
have paid for that very land with their tax dollars) and it's making me madder
and madder as I type so I will have to stop right away.
Paul was born
in CA, I lived there for over 30 years. Over the course of time we've
seen what comes of these kind of assnine governmental restrictions, and it's
not for the good.
Lif & Paul - teargassed at People's Park
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