Damage Control

With California now set to crack down on nudity on state beaches, AANR is spinning wildly to do damage control on its decision to throw San Onofre Beach under the bus.

...other venues where nudity has been traditionally enjoyed may be under threat now that California’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued its ruling regarding the Cahill Policy. This situation is, of course, what the American Association for Nude Recreation feared could happen when the Naturist Action Committee filed suit against the California Parks System.

What a crock. Nudity was under threat the minute the California Department of Parks and Recreation declared an end to nude sunbathing on San Onofre. It was not the NAC's lawsuit which caused this, so blaming them is appalingly disingenuous. What AANR really did was hedge its bets, taking a path of appeasement with the DPR instead of doing the right thing and standing up for naturist rights. It was not hard to predict the the NAC lawsuit would ultimately fail, mainly because it was over administrative process, claiming that the DPR did not go through the proper procedures to ban naturism from San Onofre.

AANR is urging everyone to stick to the facts, but is failing to present a full and honest explanation, in my opinion. The fact is that AANR has nothing, only some vague communications and what they call an "atmosphere" with the DPR, and when they ultimately come up empty-handed they are prepared to blame the NAC lawsuit for poisoning the waters of negotiation. This is all merely political posturing and does nothing for the interests of nudists and naturists.

The DPR must have been delighted when AANR failed to join the NAC lawsuit, and sensing a split and weakness in the nudist community, they played AANR for the fool, taking them out of the game with empty promises. Now that the DPR is set to start banning nudity in other areas, the fact that they cannot be trusted has become abundantly clear.

Blind faith in political leaders, and trusting them to do the right thing, leads to loss of freedoms and civil rights.

It's time for AANR to admit its mistake and work to unite all nudists and naturists to fight this threat.