Posted by J.M. on December 24, 1999 at 09:52:11:
To all interested parties,
Contrary to what some have suggested, there are a number of valuable parallels to be considered between the recent proposal of Bill 13 in Ontario and the proposed Thunder Bay shipwreck sanctuary. While it is true that the means to the end is different between the two pieces of public domain action, the result is similar in many ways. For example, the Ontario ministry has apparently dreamed up legislation that affects the Canadian diving public with little or no input from the affected groups. This Ontario legislation would have the result of placing more restrictions on the average diver who wants to visit a shipwreck in Ontario as well as those who find wrecks. In the case of the Thunder Bay proposal, there has been plenty of public input and discussion by the affected groups but the end result will be the same, more restriction on the divers who use the resource and/or the people who locate the resources. Different approach; same result. It doesn't matter whether you call it anti-government ranting or public domain conservatism, this type of activity is simply an expansion of the biggest non-productive industry in the world; government. Let's consider the reasoning for this and the implied necessities involved.
It seems like everyone would agree that 20 years ago stripping wrecks of artifacts was a socially acceptable behavior and that now it is not. Changing social mores have done more to protect shipwrecks today than any legislation or underwater preserve law could accomplish. Of course, it could be successfully argued that the laws themselves have shaped the very social mores that keep people from stripping wrecks in the first place. Either way it is viewed, it is obvious that everyone agrees that the wrecks are not being stripped like they once were and more importantly, they are already protected by law! In terms of how much stripping is presently going on I do not think anyone has an objective measure one way or another, but everyone seems to agree that stripping occurs much less than what it used to. It does not make sense to me that we now need more law to deal with a problem that is much reduced from what it used to be. Since there are already laws in place to protect the wrecks, adding more laws is akin, as someone has pointed out, to what is going on presently with firearm ownership. There are presently thousands of laws on the book about guns today and it isn't stopping the criminals from committing crimes with guns and the same holds true for those would strip the wrecks. The sound argument from gun owners is that 'we don't need more gun laws, we need more enforcement for the laws that we have,' the same could be said of the shipwreck laws.
Those of us in the States should consider Bill 13 very seriously. In contrast to the Canadians, we have more access, less restriction and pay less in taxes than the average Canadian in all aspects of our lives. For the Canadians Bill 13 is just another incremental expansion of the already pervasive public domain in Canadian society. People in the States are subject to same incremental expansion of public domain but we are just a few steps behind, or ahead, depending on how you look at it, than the Canadians. Right now, as citizens of the United States, we pay 15 to 28 percent of our income to the government in one way or another. Is it anti-government ranting when I complain about shelling out my hard-earned dollars to pay for many services that I neither need nor want? The insidious thing about public domain expansion is that the incidents of expansion and tax increases far outweigh the incidents of reduction and tax relief.
Bill 13 is being correctly rejected by the diving public but it will not die. There are many who realize that it was an expansive effort by people who want to control and these people and their views will not go away. There are many who understand that Bill 13 will come again with a subtle, incrementally expansive agenda that is driven by the same people who want to have control over something the common man is presently free to enjoy. The next time that Bill 13 comes around it will be smarter and only restrictive in a small way like the Thunder Bay proposal. Free people do not lose their freedom overnight, it happens incrementally. You may not kill someone for chopping off your finger but you might if they try to take both of your legs.
Do not take these words for granted, find out how much actual wreck stripping is going on and don't ask the people that are proposing more laws, ask the people that have found and documented wrecks. Also, consider what the Zebra mussels are doing to destroy the wrecks and carefully weigh nature's process against having more laws and paying higher taxes. Most of all, consider what freedom really is to you and how it pertains to the traditions of the United States of America. There has been much suffering to preserve the freedom that we so casually enjoy.
Attempting to respectfully serve liberty,
J.M.