Jul. 29, 2005 - 22:17 MDT

MAKES ME WONDER

These kinds of news items often make me want to either laugh or go, "Bah Humbug," over the state of mind of the "long arm of the law," in our state. An article in the Rocky Mountain News this morning by Bianca Prieto - - in part :

Breast-feeding mom ticketed

Citation dismissed; law passed last year guarantees her right

"Because he refuses to drink from a bottle his mom, Dorian Ryan, breast feeds him, even in public. That was never a problem until July 14, when Ryan was issued a $50 summons and complaint at Carter Lake in Larimer Country for "knowingly (exposing) one's genitals in a public place."

"Ryan said that a week before she was ticketed, rangers approached her and asked her to stop beast-feeding or they would cite her for indecent exposure. They implied that she was violating a Larimer County Parks and Open Lands regulation for having her breast exposed."

"The next week, The Berthoud woman made sure she was fully covered when she breast-fed. She said she placed a 4-foot-wide beach umbrella behind her, and another one above her. Wearing a man's sleeveless shirt over her swimsuit, she sat down to feed her child. Other families sat along the beach, and she thought she went unnoticed. But rangers with binoculars were stationed on a cliff about 100 yards away, she said, and she was ticketed that day."

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There is more to the article of course. However that is the main gist. Typical CYA actions by the brass saying that the ranger issuing the citation is a new hire and a temporary summer employee and was reminded of what actions merit citations.

So somewhere along the line we do have folks in the state house who have women's rights in mind and common sense enough to know the difference between exhibition and normal human rights.

So there is a law. Wouldn't it have been neat if that had gone to court and then to a higher court and a real uproar occurred ?

I don't know, for years I thought that our society had become more tolerant of the actions of other people, as long as they weren't harmful in some way to others. As a child I remember understanding that some mothers had no problem with nursing their babies out in the open amongst the public, some would drape a baby blanket over their shoulder and the baby and some did not. I remember one of our relatives who would retire to another room and nurse her baby. I guess my folks were ultra-something or other as I was trained to understand that it was up to the individual parent as to how they wanted to feed their child. And also, even though my parents were not churched, I was given to understand that the connection between a mother and her baby is a holy thing and not to be brawled about.

Genitals -- pah -- maybe technically breasts are genetalia, but the nourishment of a baby changes the aspect of the whole thing in my eyes. Among us kids there was never any of us remarking that we saw a mom's booby when nursing a baby, it was just a normal bit of routine with us. Changing diapers was another thing that took place without the extreme need for privacy, although I never saw diapers changed at the dinner table.

So, has the moral majority taken us back to Puritanic days ? What next will they come up with that they deem indecent ? MAKES ME WONDER . . . . . . . . . . .

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