🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3abmee$gcf@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>,
Doug McLaren <dougmc@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu> wrote:
>You'll get a ticket for riding your bike on the sidewalk too.
>"Well, Your Honor, I felt the law wasn't appropriate for me, so I
>broke it ..."
>No, I don't want to get involved in this 'bikes' vs 'cars' argument,
>but you do need to remember that if you break the law, no matter how
>'innappropriate' you may feel that it is, and you get caught, you may
>get a ticket or go to jail or something.
  I would fully expect to get a ticket.  It wouldn't be "right" but it
is the law.  A stupid law at that, but a law nontheless. 

  While I certainly don't want to belittle serious issues with my vain 
comparisons,  consider those who broke segregation laws during the civil
rights movement.  Were they wrong not to obey a stupid law?  Yes, they
worked for the change of the laws, but in the mean time, did they 
sit back and accept the laws?   Please, please do not think I am trying
to say the issue of riding bikes on the sidewalk is anywhere near these
civil rights issues.   They are orders of magnitudes apart.  But what I
am saying is that there are times when obeying a bad law is not always 
they right thing to do.  I don't pretend to have demonstrated that this
is a case where it is such, but that at least they do exist and those
who got up on their soap box about always obeying the law should consider 
things a bit more deeply.  

______________________________________________________________________________
orb@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu              "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
                                     I chose to climb the nearest tree.
                                     And that has made all the difference."