Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Conversation with My Civil Libertarian Self

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After reading Velvet's comments to my last post, I gave a lot of thought to why I write. I really do it for me... so there. But that being said, the above will appear at the top of every blog.

Velvet's recent posts on Microchipping Me reminded me of a conversation I had with myself last week.

O.K. before you start laughing too hard, I live alone, I work alone and there are days when I speak to no human at all. So I have to talk to myself. And for the record, I usually answer - unless I'm mad at myself and giving me the silent treatment. (Kidding!)

I was hiking the creek which is mostly dry and was very angered to find our local graffiti artists have been very busy on the levy wall and on my favorite "sofa" rock.
It was just a few months ago, I spent days negotiating between the city and the golf course which oversees the city-owned land. The golf course places huge boulders in the paths to keep golf carts (which are street legal in my town) from sneaking onto the course and illegally playing. It took a solid week of phone calls to get the boulders moved and then arranging times to meet the city graffiti crew to show them where all they had to go.

As I was looking at the levy wall full of racial hatred, swastikas and pot symbols I had the following conversation. I will refer to my two selves as CH (CreekHiker) and CL (for Civil Libertarian).

CH: (angry) Oh... we should just fingerprint everyone at birth.

CL: What? Are you nuts?

CH: Well, it would make is so much easier to catch the little punks that spread this kind of hatred and venom in the world. And, send their parents a bill for the cleanup!

CL: (Appalled) I, I, I just don't understand why you don't have a problem with that...fingerprinting everyone? What about personal freedom? What about the government abusing power?

Silence.

CH: Well, I guess I don't have a problem with it because I trust that I'm not going to do anything wrong. I have a moral compass and these little punks don't. They are going to end up in jail someday anyway. It's perfectly fine with me if they get there sooner.

And then I had nothing else to say to myself (for the moment).

Now, I don't really think that should happen but sometimes I just get so frustrated with those that destroy public property and place such hideousness in an otherwise beautiful place.

And I loved Velvet's follow up post and completely agree: Who is watching the watchers???

5 comments:

Sunflower Optimism said...

Yes, CH and CL - scary stuff, I agree. Each time I put myself on a mailing list or add one of those tags to my key ring for "membership" discounts, I have to think - "What am I giving up here in terms of privacy?"

Funny post, but scary to REALLY think about.

KatieMc said...

why oh why are there ads at the top of your page?

CreekHiker / HollysFolly said...

Katie,

Because I can't figure out how to put them anywhere else.

Linda@VS said...

Wow, Holly,I've gotta give you credit for a creative approach to the Bitacle problem.;-)

It tickled me to think about you talking to yourself. I live alone, too, so I know exactly what you mean. The good thing about these inner debates is that no matter what the outcome, you always win

KatieMc said...

Oh, sorry. I'm confused.