For an article published by the Associated Press, a reporter interviewed Brian King, spokesman for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. Brian’s take about hiking in the buff? “It's just rude.” “People are out there hiking with their kids and families, and there are Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.” Yes, by all means, we shouldn’t deny our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts their inalienable American right to grow up sexually repressed with life-long body image hang ups. God forbid that they might become privy to the closely guarded, deep dark secret that beneath the clothing, everyone is naked and males have penises while females have vaginas.
In the same article Ranger Tammy McCorkle, of the state-managed South Mountain Recreation Area in western Maryland, acknowledged that rangers were on the job and responded quickly to reports of a group of naked men spotted hiking along the AT. Although all were clothed by the time a ranger reached them, eight received disorderly conduct warnings after admitting they had been nude. According to Ranger McCorkle, they got off lucky since full-frontal violations could have resulted in indecent exposure charges. In a way it is comical how seriously and negatively so many people take something as harmless as nude hiking. One also has to wonder why authorities can’t simply solve the issue for the benefit of non-nudists by declaring one or two days out of the week as clothing optional. I mean how much trouble would it be to post a few signs along the Appalachian Trail, “Warning! On Mondays and Wednesdays you may encounter nude hikers.” I guess it is just easier to deny nudists their personal rights to enjoy nature in the natural.
For those interested who might have missed it, my most recent nudist related article published at Associated Content, Modern Nudity, explains the practice of modern nudity and includes historical underpinnings.
What does Father’s Day and nudity have in common? Usually nothing, but this year summer solstice happened to fall on Father’s Day so dad’s special day shared June 21, 2009 with the annual observance of Naked Hiking Day. It should come as no surprise that nude hiking is a European tradition where the American aversion to the natural state of the human body is less keenly felt.
Once again the long arm of the Law reaches out to protct us from ourselves. Thank goodness that Rangerette Tammy was on the job and quickly aprehended these dangerous criminals.
ReplyDeleteThen, using interrogation techniques undoubtedly learned during extensive Rangerette training at Appalachia Junior College, she cleverly extracted confessions from 8 of the 10 alleged wrong-doers.
Of course, following the logic we have all come to expect from Law Enforcement, she ticketed the honest ones and let the liars go free.
Makes ya proud, desn't? Oh, and safer too, just in case you happen to be wandering around the Appalachian Mountains.