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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels July 23, 2004 Downtown Naked Summer: Weighty issues wrapped around a hearty guffaw Andrew Scot Bolsinger Reading the newspaper recently, I can't help but chuckle. How can you not read, "... the two hour al fresco, au naturale picnic and Frisbee fest was greeted by astounded motorists on East Main Street ..." and not laugh out loud? Perhaps the council's passage of a nudity ordinance went relatively unnoticed, but the ensuing protests, including streaking at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the aforementioned naked picnic before Tuesday's council meeting, are effectively gaining attention while drawing more laughs than Bill Cosby. "It's hard to keep straight face on the whole thing," says Paul Copeland, co-chair of the Southern Oregon Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. But, oh what a tangled web we weave. Behind the laughter is a fascinating cauldron of bubbling stew of issues that to some are no laughing matter. It's all about ...? "What's the issue?" Copeland asks me as I ask him the same thing. "Some people would have different ideas on what the real issue is." To borrow from the 1970s, that's the $64,000 question. Of course, the protesters argue their civil rights are being unfairly impinged by an unnecessary law. "This goes straight back to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," naked protester Matt Dusek told a reporter Tuesday night. But Copeland points out that those opposing the nude displays argue that they are "unwilling viewers," and that their civil right not to be exposed to the ... err ... exposed is being violated. Still others argue from what Copeland calls "a sort of a Libertarian view," that we simply have too many dang laws and these types of problems aren't solved by passing more laws. At least for now, that certainly seems to be case here in naked Ashland. During a recent meeting with city councilor John Morrison, he told me that the desire to pass a nudity ordinance would only stoke more incidents of nudity. He later cast the only vote against the ban. Tuesday night Morrison continued that theme, saying the nudist displays were "entirely predictable" since there was no compelling need for the ordinance. If that's not enough of a quagmire, Copeland raises yet another point of view. "What I personally object to is the loss of legitimate demonstration," Copeland says, recalling a demonstration of naked people walking from Evo's to downtown to protest the start of the Afghanistan war. "That was one where it was kind of cool," Copeland says. Under the new ordinance police would have the legal ground to arrest the protesters. "We've lost something in process," Copeland says. A big mess The real irony here is that the ordinance itself was one of the most tepid, unobtrusive laws that could be written on the subject. In the simplest terms, under the new law, anyone, male or female, can legally walk around anywhere in Ashland wearing nothing but a thong and can be completely naked anywhere outside of city parks and the downtown. Hardly the stuff of puritanical prohibition. But the law did suffice to organize the opposition, motivate them to drop their drawers, paint their buttocks, and protest with renewed vigor, such that it may be working. Morrison has said he may urge other councilors to revisit the vote. City Councilor Cate Hartzell suggested Tuesday that the council and the protesters may need to talk about the problem together. Copeland says a possible compromise may be the final result. For instance, "there could be some areas in the park where nudity is acceptable," he says. Whatever the issues are, and whatever the final outcome may be, the nudity law has lit the match on Ashland's Naked Summer. It is already a summer to remember, and for sure, we will look back on it in the years to come and, simply, laugh. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams