Look up the etymology of "curfew" and you will find that it originates with the 14th century French word "cuevrefeu," which means, quite literally, "cover fire." It was brought into being as a way to describe the practice of ringing a bell at a certain hour each night to remind citizens to bank the flames in their hearths so as to prevent the outbreak of fires.
I wonder what would have happened, however, if the bells had incited more blazes than they'd stopped? Anyone from the Borough of Wanaque, which is being sued because of its own "cuevrefeu," might not venture to answer.
You see, in 2005, the Wanaque Borough Council approved an ordinance that declared (with very few exceptions) that no one under the age of 18 is allowed out on the street between the hours of 10 p.m. – 5:30 a.m. According to the wording in the ordinance, council people felt that this would reduce the likelihood of youths becoming either involved in or victims of criminal acts — a cunning move, no doubt, to combat the allure of the mean streets of Wanaque.
Evidently this had not been challenged until last week when the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) brought a suit against the borough after one its police officers stopped and ticketed a 17-year-old girl named Shaina Harris for violating the law.
According to the ACLU's website, the community college student had gone to buy a milkshake at the Burger King across the street (with her parent's permission), and was on her way back when she was stopped near the family mailbox by the cop. He asked her why she was out without adult supervision, she called her stepfather out of the house, and the affair ended with a $100 citation (with the possibility of up to 15 hours of community service as well.)
Wow, really America? Is that what this once-great, brawling backwoods country has been reduced to in the year 2013 — giving tickets to kids who buy milkshakes at too late an hour?
Don't misunderstand me; I know that minors don't always make the best decisions, and the legal precedent allows them to be held to slightly different standards than the rest of us. And even a freedom-demanding person like me can understand the rational for the occasional curfew, especially when there's the potential for immediate civil strife in the wake of rioting or natural disasters.
But to have the government dictate that one segment off the population be off the street at a certain time only because of their age? I must wonder what our Founding Fathers, those patriarchs that so many invoke at the outset of every argument, would say if they heard that one.
Make no mistake, this country was created because of the intense, violent reaction to two things: taxation without representation, and an overbearing and demanding government.
Our American brethren have fought and died on foreign ground in defense of those ideals, and many were the same age as or a few months older than Harris when they did; at 17, my own grandfather was fighting in the Pacific Theater of World War II.
I am not sure how the Wanaque Council, which so ignorantly passed this measure eight years ago, did so while standing in the same room as an American flag, and I'm not sure what God-given right they thought they had to suppose that they could limit, in any way, the times that any American citizen, minor or not, could travel in the public space. They may have checked if it was legal — but did they think on whether it was just?
Simply put, it's up to parents to decide what time their kids can be out until, not some legislative body that has brushed with too broad a stroke.
If this is the course we're on, though, we should make it easier for police to discern who is under 18 and who is not. Maybe we could have the kids wear a patch over their heart, something with a backwards flag or a milkshake with a red "X" over it.
Maybe the municipality could give out fake tattoos to be pasted on the youth's forearms as a constant reminder that they are not quite free yet, no matter what the songs they sang in elementary school said. Yea, that one might work. Then, at 18, a government representative could come and remove it, and mark down the exact date that you were granted freedom.
One thing I can tell you — if I was about 17 right now, every night at 10:01 p.m., I'd be standing on the street, my feet just past the curb, with an American flag in my arms.
Every. Single. Night.
Hey, think of it this way kids: you'll only have to do it for year or so. Once you turn 18, you can trade your fist full of tickets for your selective service card, which you can be sure will arrive very promptly.
Congratulations. Welcome to America!
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
