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Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 01:13:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Alan Horowitz <alanh@infi.net> Subject: Re: A Libertine Question

We require people who have syphilis to divulge who their sex partners were. I don't know if it's a good idea or not, but I haven't heard of any activist movement against it in the past 80-odd years it's been in effect.

Clear and present danger to possibly unknowing persons lives. People have a right to know if their sex partners have communicable diseases. In the case of a 'Typhoid Mary' type disease then everyone has a right to know that person is infected.

We require property owners who don't have city-sewage hookups, to install their septic tanks and maintain them in certain defined configurations which estop them from contaminating the neighbor's well. I don't know if that's a good idea or not - but I haven't seen sentiment against sewage regulation of property owners.

Clear and present danger. Once a well is contaminated that contamination can spread through the whole local water table and infect hundreds if not thousands of people with disease without warning.

So why should we be terribly upset about an ordinance which makes it illegal to operate a residential kitchen and a residential sewge-disposal operation in a city park or a city sidewalk?

As long as they have a license to operate a food dispencing facility (in other words they are certifying they are aware of the correct processes for such operations) then nobody should have the right to interfere with their operation unless with probable cause (ie proof of danger such as bad weenies in their hot dogs). This would not apply to individuals or families making such food in the same place for their own and NOT public consumption. A person or group has a right to swing their fists all they want, just not in my face. This also applies to the government which is nothing more than our elected representatives. We also can not give them rights we ourselves don't posses. Jim Choate