My Last Day of Freedom

OK, I may be exaggerating just a bit. But the Statehouse shoe rule goes into effect today.

To “celebrate”, I made my last visit there yesterday.

I’ve mentioned before that the Ohio Statehouse really is a fairly nice building. One place on the ground floor is called the “Map Room”. That’s because it is a map of the state with each county carved from a different kind of rock. You can get a feeling for it from this:

The Map Room in the Ohio Statehouse

Interestingly enough, I was really concerned that I might be harassed by State Troopers. After all the news publicity, I had no assurance that they would know just when the new rule went into effect. However, they did seem to be up on it. Many, many of them saw me going about taking pictures, and while it appeared that they discussed me amongst themselves, none of them approached me (or my photographer). [And yes, I did deliberately wear shorts to make my bare feet patently obvious.]

When the Executive Director of the CSRAB was asked why they needed a shoe rule, he invariably talked about the dangers of cracked tiles in the basement (ground floor). Here is one of those cracked tiles:

One of their "Dangerous" Cracked Tiles

Looks really scary, right? Pfft.

And here’s another “dangerous” tile:

Another of their "Dangerous" Cracked Tiles

It is to laugh.

I ended up under the dome (actually a cupola—update: the correct term is “rotunda”) of the Statehouse. That is where the most State Troopers saw me, since that is where the information/guard desk is located.

At the Center of Power

Today I am mailing a request for a waiver from the shoe rule to the CSRAB. I have no idea whether it will be granted or not.

I still hate to do it, though. One ought to be able to use the Statehouse barefoot without needing any waiver; I really, really hate to concede any legitimacy to them at all.

But, I guess if that is what I have to do, that’s what I have to do.

And if I do get one, that kind of removes the whole reason for the rule, which was enacted in the first place because they were upset that I was using the building barefoot.

Hmmmmm.