On Frozen Blog

We love this story out of Kingston, Ontario, delivered this week by The Empty Netter: the Kingston town fathers decreed that children¬†there were limited to a single hour’s play at street hockey during any four-hour block of time between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., in a city bylaw known as the¬†Street Hockey Policy and Code of Conduct.
The ’streeters, to their¬†genetic credit, aren’t taking the matter lightly, or quietly. This is in¬†Canada, for¬†puck’s sake!¬†¬†
Some Kingston sixth-graders initiated an essay writing effort in opposition to the heavy and misguided hand of government. A strong majority of the ’streeters not only opposes the time restriction but, as if to make me personally swoon with swollen hockey heart, the wearing of helmets too! “Helmets can block side vision, many wrote, and they can cost a lot, too,” Kingstonthisweek.com noted of the anti-headwear sentiment expressed by students in¬†the site’s¬†coverage of the concrete contretemps.
“If you are going to get run over by a car, I don’t think helmets are going to protect you much,” sixth grader Madeline Katz says. She sounds like the enforcer in the Katz family.
Colin Schobel, a school classmate of Katz’s, added that¬†helmets are ‚Äúsilly‚Äù and ‚Äúa waste of time because you are not going to hurt yourself running.‚Äù
Who else wants the Kingston sixth graders replacing the entirety of the City Council?
“Kids are becoming fat and fatter,” Schobel added. “So how are kids going to stay fit (when they are only) able to play for one hour? Think about it, you are wasting your time and your kids’ childhood.
“This is the lazy generation.”
Not among Kingston ’streeters, it isn’t. On a day when we below the 49th parallel remember the American Revolution, let’s salute too one every bit as principled by those who just want their game back.¬†¬†¬†