I think this is one of the saddest comments I have seen so far on the subject. When did liberty get confused with taking personal responsibility for ones actions? I mean that IS what this is all about. People being responsible for going out into the wilderness unprepared.
We ARENT infringing on your liberty to GO and hike/climb/whatever whenever, however you want. Those freedoms are intact. But if you choose to ignore the HUNDREDS of warnings posted, ignore all the public information provided to you free of charge, choose to ignore the guidance of others, then who's fault is it? No where does it say that the services will NOT be provided, but people will think twice about heading out without so much as a powerbar if they realize that calling 911 might not be a free service. We will come get you, dumbass or not.
The whole "part of our taxes" thing gets right under my skin, cause we in NH pay the second highest property taxes in the country, so unless you actually live here and end up paying for the rescues, your just :jerkit:
BTW, Monadnock is the #1 most climbed mountain in the world, according to NHPR or WKNE I cant remember which. And if you were trying to get help from there during our last storm, the EOC and Cell's where down for days, as was the power to a lot in the state.
EDIT:As far as people being "corralled" into their homes, well NO IS SAYING THEY CANT PREPARED BEFORE THEY LEAVE home, are they?
Feel free to be saddened. I have no idea when you confused liberty with personal responsibility. I suffer no such confusion. Your problem, you work it out.
I take the same position as I did the last time this topic came up:
1] Temporal based nature of preparedness as regarding equipment. The lines one seeks to draw are totally arbitrary. The last time this came up I pointed out how the Romans marched across my country including the cold hilly bits shod in sandals. A few decades ago folk would climb mountains armed with a woolen blanket, a pair of hobnail boots, a bag of nails and nuts, and little more than a length of washing line tied around the waist. Gear technology is increasing at tremendous rate now. Here I'm thinking of mechanical cams and not least electronic devices. And what of the future? Amongst all this we can also see debates on this very forum that include minority opinions of how waxed cotton is every bit as good as Gortex, and how ye olde Duluth style kit is to be preferred over proper modern packs. On that, when some plonker comes along and wants to create a divisive system that implements penalties on the basis of kit, that plonker would do well to consider the whole time line of people venturing into the outdoors and just how arbitrary their proposed divisions are.
2] Then there is the experience thing. If one is to be divisive on the basis of how learned a person may be one needs to establish some sort of tests. Perhaps that would culminate in some kind of outdoor proficiency badge people could aspire to before they could go out.
3] On top of this we have personal fitness. It has often been said that the human system is more important than the gear they have so should we invoke some sort of physical fitness tests? Should we exclude women because they tend to be less strong? Should we exclude the young or persons over retirement age? Should we just exclude people that cant bench press weight X or run 100m in under time X. Should introduce some sort of skew weighted against people on medication?
4] Then there's the financial cost. As I made clear last time I'm uncertain of how it works in the US, and then it seems to vary from state to state, but what is the financial burden of the occasional rescue on the rest of the population? And how exactly does that compare to other things. Certainly here other lifestyle choices play a massively bigger penalty on the community. I have private medical health care but I still pay in to the NHS that covers the great slew of people harmed during ball game related activities. I also pay in to cover the costs of pissheads that can't take their drugs properly and come unstuck whilst drunk. I also pay in to cover the cost of UVF treatment that is no more essential than having breast implants, and so on. The point is all these things have costs. Whatever the oder of financial costs may be associated with different activities and wants for a given geographical location the chances are that by focusing on the occasion rescue of a person in peril in the outdoors you are kinda missing the elephant in the room.
5] I'm also recalling that in many states SAR activity is voluntary and done for the fun, the exercise, and bragging rights, or some combination of the three. Someone else may be bothered to dig up the thread here concerning a bloke in peril on a mountain that has special relevance. An SAR guy on this very forum chimed in on that aspect. His position was against imposing costs, and that any fines that accrued revenue would be very unlikely to make it back in to the SAR community. On that, there is a direct parallel with what we have here in the form of stealth tax on cars, and how the money harvested from speed cameras and wheel clamps does not go back in to making a better and safer driving experience.
I could go on but I wont. Frankly it is tedious. It's always the same easy have dig at someone else's thing. It seems too easy to misconstrue it as not as a liberty thing but a responsibility thing when it is happening to someone else. And it is far too easy for the brave from the safety and comfort of an armchair to pontificate in the belief that their skills and kit is somehow superior and that lesser mortals should be restricted or fined for disobedience. I am not minded like that. Despite not having any medical conditions, and having skills and fitness that a probably a tad beyond the average pleb, I am not willing to be so nannying, patronizing and condescending to others so the thread can continue to wend its merry way without me. It is just not in the spirit of the outdoor life and presents as a total drone on befitting a politician.
It's also worth noting in case we meet in a future thread. I don't respond well to being called a w4nker. I can play games of pottymouth in the gutter with the best of them, and it is not beyond me to address your Sandy Vagina Syndrome by calling you a cvnt.
