The sign said “Beware of the Dance Police.â€
It graced a wooden post at San Tan Flat, a restaurant in Pinal County, Arizona. It was part of the restaurant’s protest against the county’s busy-bodyish no-dancing rule. Owners Dale Bell and son Spencer appealed that decision. And won. Spencer gladly took the sign down.
The victory belongs to the San Tan Flat’s patrons — who just like to dance to country music — and to its owners, and to . . . new media.
I first learned about this at reason.tv. I reported how comedian Drew Carey has turned his celebrity status into a force for freedom. Here’s what San Tan Flat’s Dale Bell says about freedoms today, courtesy of reason.tv:
Government often times in America, in 2008, is intrusive and very corrupt in its approach to small business people and individual citizens. . . . [G]overnment will take your freedoms away, if you are willing to give them up.
For sticking up for the rights of their customers to dance, Dale and Spencer have been rewarded with . . . freedom. To allow their customers freedom.
And it wasn’t just new media that helped. It was new . . . legal assistance. Dale thanks the Institute for Justice for making the battle a lot easier.
So, go to reason.tv, and watch and listen . . . and tap your toes. Go to ij.org, to help these great freedom-minded lawyers.
And, if in Pinal County, dine at San Tan Flats. You’re even free to dance.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.