Shocking Observations

["Saundra Lund" <sslund@moscow.com>]

Dear Visionaries,

I spent my afternoon hard at work on a research project.  From 1:30 to 4
PM, I was at the swimming pool to take an unofficial count of how many
law breakers were there now that the City Council has decided to move us
back towards the Dark Ages.

And, I hate to tell you, but that new public nudity ordinance may as
well not exist.  And, I honestly don't know how our police department
will be able to enforce it.

In that three-and-a-half hour period, I counted ***forty*** swimsuits
being worn by pubescent and postpubescent females that are in violation
of "our" public nudity ordinance because too much breast was showing.
And, I counted *nine* males, and countless children, who obviously
haven't gotten the word that showing the cleft of the buttocks is now a
legal offense.

Since the so-called majority has decided that this way is best, I
suppose I should be outraged that so much blatant law-breaking was in
evidence.  Where was Moscow PD???  Why was I subjected to something in
public the "majority" has decided I need to be protected from???  What
kind of message is being sent to my daughter that we now have a law on
the books that's clearly going to be selectively enforced, if enforced
at all?  Perhaps I should boycott the pool until the law is enforced
there?  After all, the "majority" has decided "that" kind of attire is
illegal . . . what kind of a parent am I for taking my daughter to a
place where lawlessness runs rampant???  Perhaps I should turn myself
into the authorities as an unfit parent for "frequenting" a place with
my child where so much illegal behavior happens???  Who'd have ever
thought . . . 

Naturally, I didn't go to the pool alone . . . I was in the company of
my daughter, my adult female friend, and her two daughters.

A couple of interesting questions came up.

>From the mouths of babes . . . my nine-year-old companion raised what I
think is an excellent question:  what happens when a swimsuit is OK when
the female is standing up but not OK when she's laying down, on her
stomach or her back, sunbathing???  Gravity can cause . . . interesting
things to happen, as most of us adult females know.  Perhaps we should
have just outlawed sunbathing while we were at it because it looked like
about 70% of the women in a swimsuits were breaking the nudity law when
they chose to lay down.

Second, are retailers going to have to quit selling swimsuits and
leotards that don't comply with the new nudity law?  If not, why not?  I
think it will be a very confusing thing for people *not* to wear normal
clothing like swimsuits they buy at the Mall to our pools or on our
streets.

It's a sad, sad day in Moscow, IMHO.


Saundra Lund
Moscow, Idaho

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to
do nothing.
Edmund Burke