This Is Our Country. Let’s Walk It.

In much of Europe, walking wherever you want is perfectly legal. Not in America.

Our understanding of property and our unquestioned devotion to the right to exclude may need to be reconsidered in an age when America is increasingly characterized by growing populations, sprawling cities and suburbs, and far less green space.

While the Bundy family and radical ranchers out west talk of seizing public land for themselves, we should be having the opposite conversation — about opening up the country for everyone. Something as innocent and wholesome as a walk in the woods shouldn’t be considered illegal or intrusive. Walking across the so-called freest country on earth should be every person’s right.

Ken Ilgunas

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/opinion/sunday/this-is-our-country-lets-walk-it.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0