This past weekend my wife and I headed down to Charleston, SC, for a quick 48-hour visit with her parents, who had just moved there last month. We wanted to check out their new digs and see the sights of one of the most beautiful cities in the South.
While taking a stroll around lovely downtown Charleston, we came upon a strange sight: a doorman scraping gum off of the telephone pole in front of his building. We then noticed that all of the telephone poles at that intersection were completely covered in people’s “ABC gum” (Already Been Chewed).
My father-in-law decided to ask the doorman why this was the case, to which the man replied, “There is a $500 fine for putting gum on telephone poles.”
My wife and I chuckled to ourselves (outside of earshot of the poor doorman left to the nasty deed of removing the gum, of course), that this was a perfect example of how the law works. It always brings about the opposite of its intended effect. The end result of this law was telephone poles covered in gum.
There is usually confusion over the function of the law. Often we think of it as something that is supposed to prevent certain behaviors, but in actuality it reveals the existence of those behaviors and, more often than not, it causes the behaviors in question.
I know some may think this is up for debate, but next time you walk around your town, take a look at the telephone poles. There may be a little bit of gum or something on them, but I bet they will be pretty clean. My bet is that there is no known law against dirtying the telephone poles. Then, consider the poles in Charleston where the law is intended to prevent the gum, and remember this picture.
“Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” – Romans 5:20
COMMENTS
11 responses to “Bubblegum Laws”
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Sean,
Very insightful and fresh!
David
An outstanding post, and a perfect photograph.
What a great illustration! I’d stick my gum on there too!
Thanks Sean…when we were in Singapore a couple months ago, one of my relatives gave me a shirt that says ‘Singapore: A Fine City’ with a list of all the fines…thought this would be apropos:
Smoking $1,000
Food/Drink on public trans.: 1000
Littering 1000
Spitting (seriously) 1000
Durian on public trans. (look it up) 1000
Chewing gum: 10,000
Firecrackers: 10,000
Urinating: 500
Vandalism: 10,000
Singapore sounds like a very scary place Dylan.
Charleston and Singapore reminded me of all of the times my friends and I would intentionally go out at night past the town’s curfew for minors to see if we could dodge the cops looking for kids out past curfew. If we had lived in Singapore we bet we would have gone out at night chewing gum, while lighting firecrackers, while urinating, while spitting, while littering, etc.
For me, the crazy thing about this post is that I live in Charleston and didn’t know about this law, but, now, thank God, I can actually go out and take part in the rebellion. …so I’m off to go buy some Big League Chew, and maybe some superglue. p.s., If anyone wants to come visit so that they too can participate, just let me know. 😉
Yes, it is actually illegal to import chewing gum into Singapore.
They did lift the ban for Nicorette, but the penalty for importing is a year in prison and a $5500 fine!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3512498.stm
Oh, and they tell you on the plane, ‘If you have any drugs, do not bring them into the country…the penalty is death!’ Woah!
I know you were probably typing fast, but it’s telephone pole, not telephone poll, unless of course you’re telephoning someone to ask their opinion for a survey.
whoops! thanks Charles