nicho@vnet.IBM.COM (Greg Stewart-Nicholls) writes:  >In <C63nA8.4C1@news.cso.uiuc.edu> George F. Krumins writes: >>I was suggesting that the minority of professional and amateur astronomers >>have the right to a dark, uncluttered night sky. >  Sorry, you have a _wish_ for an uncluttered night sky, but it >isn't a right. When you get down to it, you actually have no rights >that the majority haven't agreed to give you (and them in the process). >It's a common misconception that being born somehow endows you with >rights to this that and the other. Sadly this is not true. >  Now if you want to talk about the responsibility that _should_ go with >the power to clutter the night sky, then that's a different matter. > ----------------------------------------------------------------- >Greg Nicholls ...         : Vidi >nicho@vnet.ibm.com or     : Vici >nicho@olympus.demon.co.uk : Veni  According to this reasoning there are no rights, at least none that I can think  of....  Let's see.  Do I have a right to unpolluted air?  No, because the majority drive cars and use goods that create air pollution in the manufacturing process.  Do I have the right to clean water?  I guess not, by the same reasoning. I could go on with these examples for a long time....  Look at Nazi Germany.  Because of the majority, Jews, homosexuals, blacks, and others that were different had no rights.  In fact they were terrorized,  imprisoned, and slaughtered.  In this country did blacks have the right to be free from slavery?  I guess not, because the majority said that slavery was  good for them.  I think that a right has a moral imperative.  If a law, imposed by the majority, is immoral, one should not follow it.  In fact, one should do everything in his/her power to stop it. Of course, that doesn't mean that I would lose all common sense to break the law, just because I thought it was immoral.  I pay my Federal Income Tax even though I am morally opposed to the U.S. Government taking my money and spending it on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. This is precisely the point I am trying to make.  We should _persude_ people  by logic, pointing out that it is in their self-interest to let all have equal rights in all aspects of life, including adequate housing, food, and medical care.  I just happen to think that for a full life the aesthetic of beauty and joy is also necessary.  That is why I consider an uncluttered night sky a right.  Have you ever been out in the desert, away from local lights, and most people? The sky is dark and transparent.  The Milky Way is ablaze with more detail than you thought possible.  The beauty and wonder takes your breath away.  Now imagine you live in the worst ghetto, say in L.A. Due to light pollution you have never seen a dark sky.  You might in fact never, not in your whole life, ever see the majesty of the night sky.  Every where around you, you see squalor, and through your life runs a thread of dispair. What is there to live for?    I admit these two scenarios are extreme examples, but I have seen both. I, for one, need dreams and hopes, and yes, beauty, as a reason for living. That is why I consider an uncluttered night sky a right.  George