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Meanwhile,
all employers in California are now prohibited by law from firing a man
who has decided to cross-dress at work. And needless to say, no fellow
worker can say to that man, "Hey, Jack, why not wear the dress at home
and men's clothes to work?" An employer interviewing a prospective
employee is not free to ask the most natural human questions: Are you
married? Do you have a child? How old are you? Soon "How are you?" will
be banned lest one discriminate on the basis of health.
When I was boy, what people did at home was not their employer's
business. Today, companies and city governments refuse to hire, and may
fire, workers no matter how competent or healthy, who smoke in their
homes. Sarasota, Fla., the latest city to invade people's private
lives, would not hire Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt or John F.
Kennedy if they applied for a job.
When I was a 7-year-old boy, I flew alone from New York to my aunt and
uncle in Miami and did the same thing coming back to New York. I
boarded the plane on my own and got off the plane on my own. No papers
for my parents to fill out. No extra fee to pay the airline. I was
responsible for myself. Had I run away or been kidnapped, no one would
have sued the airline. Today, fear of lawsuits is a dominant fact of
American life.
When I was a boy, I ran after girls during recess, played dodgeball,
climbed monkey bars and sat on seesaws. Today, more and more schools
have no recess; have canceled dodgeball lest someone feel bad about
being removed from the game; and call the police in to interrogate,
even sometimes arrest, elementary school boys who playfully touch a
girl. And monkey bars and seesaws are largely gone, for fear of
lawsuits should a child be injured.
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