Take the double slide in Oologah, Okla., donated to the town's park by the Kiwanis. A local landmark for 50 years, this slide, shaped like two legs of a spider, had been a favorite of Oologah's children. In 1995, however, a child suffered minor injuries while playing unattended on the slide. The parents, who presumably could have supervised their child, made a claim against the town. The town decided it had no choice, despite a citizens' petition urging that the slide remain.
Modern rights seem limitless.
For the price of a lawyer, anyone can transform his sense of entitlement into a legal claim. This has changed the way we live, infecting our choices with legal fear. Our playgrounds are being stripped of seesaws. Paranoid doctors order unnecessary tests. Oologah's slide is a national metaphor.