<< whatever the merits of PFDs, forbidding pictures of people without them goes MUCH too far. I believe that magazines should depict things as they are, not function as vehicles for puritans, moralizers, and sanctimonious "role models.">> I couldn't disagree more. The wording of Richard's note seems, to me, to be moralizing and puritanical. I won't go so far as to say it's "sanctimonious", but some people might. Societies are built on systems of values, standards, and morals. There should be some flexibility in all of those - but That flexibility, that freedom, comes from an ability to accept most of the society's standards, most of the time. People who get their kicks from embracing anarchy and a lack of any standard of safe behavior risk losing the very freedom they claim to value. Conversely, people who know the dangers really do have an obligation to act as role models for those who are ignorant. In my opinion ignorance *can* occasionally be a valid excuse for stupid and/or dangerous behavior. An adolescent insistence that everyone else adhere to one's own uninformed view of acceptable behavior is not such an excuse. Bill Hansen Ithaca NY *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Sep 07 2000 - 11:36:32 PDT
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