Editorial:
RVers Want Freedom to Choose Where They Park!

by Fran Crawford

I don't think WalMart or other businesses surrounded by large, flat areas actively seek out RVers to fill their parking lots any more than I think a preponderance of RVers set out to travel the nation staying only in parking lots.

Capitalism is not a dirty word.

An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state, capitalism gives us the freedom to run our businesses and private lives as we see fit. Be it known the antonym of capitalism is communism.

Almost all RVers love freedom... freedom to choose where, when and how they go about their lifestyle ...sort of like non-RVers or 'normal?' people like to choose where they go and what they do. Free/private enterprise and a free market should be what governs business.

Those who stopover in parking lots are looking for convenience... to sleep, shop and be on their way. Those choosing a RV park, campground, or resort are looking for security, facilities, activities, entertainment, tourism and/or other amenities. Those who seek to satisfy any of the wants/needs of either group are looking at the problem from an economic point of view and should be able to do so in a free market.

And, yes, I have worked in a RV park in the middle of a city. I earnestly tried to make sure that every RVer that left that park truly thought that it was a nice, comfortable, fun place to have spent the night, or a week or whatever and would tell other RVers about it. And, yes, I know that maintaining a park is expensive and it is tough on the owners when a half or a third of their park is empty and they see overnighters in the WalMart lot. But why should any business be required to put up signs and forbid use of their facility because someone else's business is slow. It doesn't make good sense.

To paraphrase an old, old song: ...where has all the freedom gone ... long time ago.