Submitted by Jeb Corliss, Mar 3, 2008 02:26

If you are in a building over 10 floors high and something catastrophic happens on floors beneath you and that building begins to burn and you have two choices, burn or jump, you better pray this law hasn't gone through. Because without a parachute you will not survive the fall. Parachutes save human life, they do not endanger it. The first concepts for parachutes were to save people from burning buildings, not crashing airplanes. We have the technology to save human life in a city that has far to few helicopter landing pads. Over 4,000 base jumpers all over the world have proven that humans can survive jumping from buildings with parachutes and now this Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. wants to take away a persons right to train in an activity that can save their life. That is unjust and wrong. Just because he fears something he does not understand does not give him a right to try and make a law of this nature. This law will take away fundamental human rights. If no one had grabbed onto my legs as I was standing on a 4 inch ledge I would have jumped, landed safely and New York wouldn't have even noticed I was there. The Empires excessive over reaction is what caused the danger to my life and the ensuing media frenzy. From leaving the bathroom on the observation deck to landing on 5th ave, the whole process would have taken under 2 minutes. With no footage and no story it would have been on the 10th page of the paper about 6 lines long. The jump from the Empire was fulfilling a life long dream of human flight. An expression of true freedom. Freedom from fear, freedom from those that will always try to push you down and tell you things are impossible. No one was ever in any danger from base jumping. Not on the day I tried to jump the Empire state building and not on the other days when 4 different people jumped it years ago. That's right, it has been jumped in the past by 4 different people. The only difference between then and now is how New York responded to it. New York use to be a city of entrepreneurs, risk takers, truly great human beings. Has this country really become this scared of its own shadow. To fear things like this. There is real danger in this world, things you should fear, like men who think they have power trying to take away your rights as human beings... Jeb Corliss P.S. I would much rather work with the empire state building and New York then against them. I love my country and I love my freedom. You tell me what I have to do to get a permit to base jump the empire state building and I will do it. You want me to hire the police to control traffic and crowds, DONE. You want me to pay the building for access, DONE. I will go even further, I will get fortune 500 companies to donate a huge some of money to any charity the empire state building chooses. Lets make this positive for everyone involved. Lets try to help people who really need it. But if you think you can use fear to control me, well you need to think about the person you are dealing with. I jump off buildings and dive with man eating sharks. How scared of you do you really think I am...

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