Nagged in Nags Head

(I wrote up this piece Monday night - the second evening of my road trip. So read it now before it reads you!)

Near Lynchburg, VA (12/29/08) - I'm still on my excellent fact-finding mission, and today I found some unfortunate facts about the takeover by the Far Right of a resort island on North Carolina's Outer Banks.

I ate lunch at the horrendous Dirty Dick's tourist trap, but that's not what's at issue here.

Rather, the island containing Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, and Kitty Hawk emitted some rather unsavory Allowed Clouds.

For starts, when we drove onto the island, an angry red traffic sign scolded, "ALL FIREWORKS ILLEGAL."

Suuuuure. You honestly think I wouldn't have violated that Allowed Cloud by now if I lived in the area?

Hey, no biggie - just as long as I can easily defy it.

Of greater consequence may be the snooty attitude regarding "their" beach. The fact of the matter is, oceans are public property. Laws throughout the eastern U.S. also establish beaches as public up to the point where plant and animal life are land-based. Because our beaches belong to the people, public access must be provided.

Unfortunately the "all land is private lolololololz" ideologues don't grasp this concept.

I tried looking for a spot from which to access the public beach in the Outer Banks. I work hard, and I'm a member of the public, so I have a right to use a public beach. But almost every access point was emblazoned with a sign screaming about how it was private. Public access points often had no parking. I kept passing up ones that had parking, because highway authorities had placed unrelated traffic signs in front of the signs for them - in order to keep people from finding them.

The beachfront region was also marred by sprawl, but the insistence by wealthy residents of monopolizing a public beach undermines the sprit of American ingenuity just as much.

Other than this, a bippin' good time has been had by all on our fact-finding trip!