Interviewed on KIRO Radio

As a result of my Statehouse story appearing in the Columbus Dispatch on Thursday, I was contacted by the producer of the Ross and Burbank radio show in Seattle, WA. They are a CBS affiliate, and seemed to be quite serious and willing to listen, so I talked to them.

It was a pretty good interview.

You can listen to the interview here (it’s about 13 minutes long):

Although the producer called me because of specific interest in the Statehouse story, the hosts of the show kept it mainly on simply going about life barefoot. While they had vaguely heard about barefoot running, that really was peripheral. A lot of time was spent just acquainting them on how one goes about barefoot most of the time.

There is also a write-up on their web page: here.

I thought it was a pretty good interview. I’ve had enough experience in other interviews (or meeting people in stores, or talking to people while hiking) that I have a number of anecdotes and decent talking points.

As a side note, I still encounter people who are horribly confused as to just what happened with the Statehouse. They somehow think I sued them. That is not the case.

To remind you all, I was stopped by a State Trooper one time, in June of 2009. He was sure I was illegal, but after detaining me and checking with the Statehouse people (CSRAB), they told him there was no rule and he had to let me go (AWWWWWW). But the Statehouse people suddenly realized that 1) they had no rule (ay, caramba!), and 2) they really, really needed one (just because).

In May of 2010 they tried to create such a rule, but I caught them violating their very own rules for making rules. Really.

So they had to go back and start all over again, and in the process changed their rulemaking rules to make it easier (and less likely for them to violate them—really!).

Once they had that all squared away, they recreated their shoe rule last October, and that is when we all got involved to try to influence the entire rulemaking process dictated by Ohio statutes.

No lawsuit. (But I did buy 3 years of barefoot access to the Statehouse!)

Now, there are those who say that it was just a battle that could never have been won, so we just shouldn’t have bothered fighting it. They say we should put our trust in books like “Born to Run” and maybe in twenty or fifty years such “education” might turn the tide. They say that any other activism is just worthless.

Sorry, I’m not rolled that way.

For one thing, depending on some book to catch fire, and then hoping that it happens again in our favor, is the epitome of wishful thinking.

But the other main reason is that, even losing, we educate people.

Because of the loss, I got to talk to the people of Seattle yesterday. Because of the loss, we got two state Senators who put serious thought into it and voted with us. Because of the loss, the people of Ohio learned about how idiotic their government is over stuff the government has no business getting into. Because of the loss, stories have appeared in newspapers that get commented on by those sick and tired of overbearing, nanny-state government. Because of the loss, I’ve had conversations with all sorts of people, in stores and on hikes, about that idiocy.

Now, I’d really rather be saying “because of the win” instead of “because of the loss”, but the correct thing to say is “because of the effort we made”.

Don’t forget, this also had great educational value.

Or we could have just not bothered fighting it, because we were going to lose anyways. The rule could have gone into effect without note, or comment. Some NSNSNS signs then might have gone up on the Statehouse doors, and the populace would have had reinforced for them the idea that bare feet are, and ought to be, banned everywhere.

That’s not a step forward, that’s a step back.

Meanwhile, the new barefoot runners influenced by “Born to Run” can keep running. Outdoors. As they have always been able to do.

While wonderful, that doesn’t do much to advance a general barefoot acceptance. It just says, see, you can go barefoot outdoors.

OK. Whatever.