[Updated 9:55. See the end of the post.]

After today’s story in the Times-Picayune about the Mid-City bonfire, it’s time to let the bonfire go. Not because of anything the story said, but because the event’s danger will go up. Until now, it’s an event that has spread by word of mouth to people who would get it, people who share values. As such, it has been safer than in it sounds on paper. But with word of the event now jumping that selective process, curiosity seekers, amateur drinkers out on a New Year’s Eve binge, rowdies and the like will all be there to see what big deal is. And that doesn’t bode well for the bonfire event as those of us who have regularly attended know it. For many of us, it’s a huge leap from fireworks to handguns, but not for others, and they add a level of danger that fire and fireworks don’t.

We’ve all known this day would come. Open fires and unregulated fireworks in a residential neighborhood aren’t permitted, and sooner or later, the city would step in. And a regulated, authorized version just isn’t the same thing. Part of the beauty of the event was how civil an unpoliced event could be, even with the presence of a lot of alcohol. It confirms what I’ve always believed: Police and coersive laws provoke a lot of misbehavior, and if people see a good reason not to misbehave – like having fun – they don’t.

For those who are interested, an online petition to save the bonfire has been posted here.