Brian Nystrom writes:
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Mary Malmros wrote:
Brian Nystrom writes:
Mary Malmros wrote:
Show me a reasonably
parallel situation where similar events have caused "the
politicians" to "lean on" participants as a whole -- presuably with
the effect of restricting their activity -- and I will perhaps be
somewhat more inclined to believe that someone dying because he
can't do a self-rescue is going to mean the end of kayaking as we
know it.
How soon they forget...
And how little they understand...
It was only a few months ago that paddlers in CT fought off an attempt
at registration w/mandatory training that was being (thinly) disguised
as a safety measure.
It was, but not in the sense that you're trying to portray it. This
bill, which has reared its ugly head before, was put forth as a
"homeland security" thing. The argument put forth was we gotta
register the kayaks so that furrin terrorists in kayaks can't land
somewhere and blow up the beach or something. This was extensively
discussed on NPMB, and the consensus was that it was 9/11 hysteria,
being used as a stalking horse for certain ricon Connecticut shore
property owners who didn't want the smelly common folk landing on
their beaches. And, of course, there's always a dummy or two in the
legislature who says, "Aha! Revenue source!" But it was never
about protecting the kayakers from themselves; it was about
protecting the rest of the world from them kayaking terrorists.
You're wrong Mary. That's the way a similar bill was put forth LAST
year. This year's bill was proposed under different aupices, the major
one being safety. I've read the transcripts of the hearing. Have you? It
was shot down largely because there is an average of only 1.2 kayaker
deaths in CT annually, which pretty much negated the safety argument.
I didn't read every word of the transcripts (did you?), but it was
my understanding that the safety thing was a MINOR issue, and
"homeland security" + revenue were the main issues. Got a cite on
those transcripts that says otherwise?
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Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield,
Other days you're the bug.