DeLaWho? DeLaWhat? DeLaWhere?

I just got back from playing a basketball at Rockford Park this afternoon and I opened up the esteemed Delaware newspaper, The News Journal. I flipped to the Opinion section and found two pieces about Senate Bill 165, which will bring hefty fines to anyone who plays music in public space. Here isthe News Journal's Editorial Board's stance on the issue.

Bill to outlaw loud music in cars sends a signal to rude people

05/10/2004

Whether the music is rap or a rhapsody doesn't matter. People who turn up the level on their car stereos so loud that the sound reverberates for several blocks are rude and offensive.

We don't know many people who would disagree with the thrust of Sen. John Still's proposal to make turning up the stereo in a car a motor vehicle crime. Under Senate Bill 165 anyone who plays music on a public thoroughfare or other public space loud enough to be heard 50 feet away would be subject to a fine of between $100 and $500 for a first offense and twice that amount if they do it again.

Young people already have complained that the law is aimed at them and one of their few pleasures. Wrong. Many of those who intrude into other people's lives with their blaring stereos are well beyond the teen and young adult stages. But they obviously haven't learned how to behave as adults. Adults are respectful of others.

Some others contend this bill is aimed at a particular kind of music. But it's not. Beethoven at unacceptable decibel levels would be just as unwanted on the roadways as the latest in pop music.

Noise pollution is just as grating as graffiti. Those who share their favorite recording artist's work with the world are no different than those who spray their self-indulgent messages on public buildings and walls . They are intruding where they are not wanted.

The problem is really a matter of civility. And it's difficult to legislate good manners. Sen. Still is well intentioned in this matter and, perhaps, the prospect of a big fine will induce some people to turn down the volume.

And an editorial from a man in Houston...(I guess there is a Houston in Delaware...thanks for the tip-off)

Blaring Car Stereos are a kind of bullying

The new law against loud car stereos has elicited protests from the cultural tyrants who will be required to keep their unwanted music to themselves.

Let us examine why they play their public address system stereos at volumes that can be heard a mile away. Contrary to what they tell us, loud music is never played to enjoy the music. It is played because the bullies who play it find it fun to demonstrate their power to indiscriminately abuse others. It thrills them to get away with invading the privacy of people's homes and businesses, degrading property values, destroying the quality of life, and dominating by imposing a culture that they refuse to admit is obviously inferior.

In the wild, Chimpanzees express pecking order by smearing their excrements upon those less able to defend themselves. The players of loud music are chimpanzees in human bodies who defecate their "music" from their car stereos and smear it in the interiors of all our homes. When we the people fight back with a law that limits the volume of their music, they argue in bad faith about their freedom to do whatever they want at the expense of other peoples' rights.

Like public smokers who want the libertine surplus right to light up wherever they feel like they complain, "Stop picking on me and go after more important social problems."

Senate Bill 165 is necessary. We need it because it empowers us, the people, to take back our personal environments and it restores our right to decide for ourselves what kind of music we shall hear in the privacy of our own homes and in our own cars.

Barny Vincelette, Houston

With the recent completion of this Public Speaking course, I feel compelled to respond to these two pieces and teach them (especially the purple dinosaur from Houston), a little bit about persuasion and working with people, instead of putting them on the defensive. I found it offensive that the man said that blaring car stereos is a form bullying and then turned around and put down the people who turn their music up. He described their culture as being inferior. That sounds like bullying too. I am going to write a letter to the Opinion section about this and I will post it on here when it is completed.