It's A Human Right - Doncha Know

The Right to Hang Your Laundry Anywhere You Want To

I have a new windmill for our HRCs to tilt at. Read this piece from Yahoo News.

As the article starts:

Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.

Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.

You go girl.

Froehlich says she hangs her underwear inside. The effervescent 54-year-old is one of a growing number of Americans demanding the right to dry laundry on clotheslines despite local rules and a culture that frowns on it.

Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group's executive director, Alexander Lee.

Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.

I am not sure what effervescent has to do with it, since I think that has to do with the amount of CO2 she has in her system, which could cause green house gases. Good news though about the underwear. Inside is good.

But the right to Hang - laundry that is, not to be confused with other hanging:

For Froehlich, the "right to hang" is the embodiment of the American tradition of freedom.

"If my husband has a right to have guns in the house, I have a right to hang laundry," said Froehlich, who is writing a book on the subject.

Besides, it saves money. Line-drying laundry for a family of five saves $83 a month in electric bills, she said.

Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.

"It made me angry and upset," said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. "I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It's something I have always done since I was a little kid."

Well, her husband has the right to bear arms. That's an American right. Here in Ontario, we have the right to bear breasts. Gotta love this place.

She also has a right to write a book about hanging laundry outside. Seems to me if its an Idiots Guide to hanging laundry, it ought to be pretty short. If it is about the philosophy of hanging laundry outside, it could be a best seller, for a short story.