Line up for your 'right to dry'

O ne common-sense step toward reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, energy costs and the rising sea-level threat transcends the climate change debate: Solar and wind power can dry your laundry.

Too bad most Americans rarely tap into those practical forms of "alternative energy." Too bad many Americans with flawed aesthetic tastes foolishly regard laundry-draped clotheslines as an eyesore tantamount to derelict cars on concrete blocks.

Many neighborhoods, including some in our community, restrict or even bar drying laundry outdoors in a misguided effort to maximize scenic appeal and property values. Yet to the enlightened eye, the sight of laundry on clotheslines exudes a breezy charm. And though residents of drying-restricted subdivisions sign documents agreeing to honor no-dry zones, a rising tide of public opinion is justifiably seeking — and increasingly obtaining — their revocation. For instance, a new "right to dry" law, banning bans on clotheslines, took effect in Vermont two months ago.

The call to action on righttodry.org lays this timely issue on the line: "To promote line drying as a symbol of patriotism, intelligence, and environmental activism, rescuing it from the symbol of poverty and despair it seems to represent to many Americans today."

The site also is pumping a petition urging President Obama and his family to lead by practical example with the installation and use of a clothesline on the White House grounds.

It's understandable that many decades ago many Americans thought using a clothesline revealed a financial inability to buy a dryer.

But in 2009, keeping up with the Joneses by never hanging up your clothes isn't keeping up with the times. Demanding your "right to dry" is.