Re: Motorcycles at DCHS beach on 7-3

Nathan,

I am a long time subscribe to John Stuart Mills's harm principle - that each individual has the right to act as he or she desires as long as it does no harm to others. This is what we should be calling freedom. Now defining harm to others can be difficult (one never actually lives in total isolation), but in a great number of situations, the principle can be applied with minimal criticism if we view harm as to limited to the individual. For example - if you shoot heroin at home, have sex with a consenting adult in your home (or hotel room), watch tons of porn, play music as loud as possible, you are possibly doing harm only to yourself and WITH another adult who has agreed to participate. Now if you shoot people, rape children, create porn with children or non-consenting adults or make so much noise you neighbors hear it, you are harming more than yourself.

If you decide, at DCHS, to smoke pot, but not blow your smoke on others - it may be against the law, but in my view - it harms only you. Since DCHS has multiple decade history of clothing optional behavior, you are making a choice to visit the place and hence can not claim harm if you see a naked person. If nudity offends you, which it appears does not, there are an infinite number of other options for which nude behavior is not acceptable. Starting a fire at DCHS violates the "do no harm" principle since the possibility of burning down the forest and thus ruining it for many people is too high. This is why it is outlawed.

Camping and motorized vehicles are also forbidden. This is one reason I go there. Hence I am harmed when people blatantly disregard the rules. Again, there are an significant number of other locations for people who want to do off-road riding or camping in the forest. (Motorized vehicles also increase chance of fire as well.)

So what some people consider gaining freedom for themselves, I consider removing freedom for me.

An aside - the irony is that based upon my experiences outside of the U.S. both as a visitor and inhabitant, I consider the U.S. one of the less free industrialized nations. If you want to be naked - go to Spain where you have a constitutional right to be nude - even in public. (I hear Vermont is similar.)