news-record.com

They call it clotheslining in football, when someone uses a rigid, outstretched arm to tackle an opponent by striking him in the neck or chest.

It is dirty and illegal.

And it hurts like hell.

Just ask Pricey Harrison, who received such a blow, figuratively speaking, when attempting to push an innocent piece of legislation in favor of clotheslines..

Far be it from me to tell our neighbors how to dry their tidy whities, but Harrison’s bill should have gotten a more serious hearing.

In short (definitely no pun intended), the Greensboro Democrat’s legislation would have empowered residents to choose whether they want to use clotheslines instead of dryers.

Some people consider that more important a question that some people's obvious discomfort with visions of their BVD's fluttering in the summer breeze.

In fact, there is a national movement to return to clotheslines as a smarter, greener alternative to dryers.

After all, dryers consume huge amounts of power.

Appliances account for about 17 percent of the average household's energy consumption, with refrigerators, clothes washers, and dryers leading the way.

They also are a fire hazard. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 15,500 fires associated with clothes dryers occur annually, causing an average of 10 deaths, 310 injuries and more than $99 million in property damage

For my mother, though, it's simply a matter of quality.

As she sees it,  using sun and wind to dry laundry makes it fresher and involves less wear and tear on the fabric.

She has never owned a dryer in her life -- and I'm betting she never will.

And if it rains, then it rains. She either races to gather the laundry before the storm arrives, or she washes it again after the storm has passed.

Nor do clotheslines have to be eyesores. New, more compact designs can keep them largely hidden from view.

All that said, I should come clean (honestly, no pun intended), I live in a community whose covenants prevent clothelines.

And I never enjoyed having to hang clothes on the line while growing up, especially women's clothes.

And on rainy or cold days the laundry just doesn't get done.

Still, the bill never had a chance, except as an easy punch line for punchy legislators.

“Yeah, they did behave childishly,” Harrison said. “They never did consider the bill on its merits. It was frustrating.”

Plus, if many of the lawmakers who poked fun at Harrison’s bill were honest, most remember well a day when clotheslines were more the rule than the exception.

According to the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, one-third of the state’s lawmakers are 65 or older. Yup. They remember.

But some people much younger than that appreciate the simple wisdom of a string of wire and two poles.

They ought to have the right to choose.

That's the thrust of a movement, right2dry, which is trying to persuade the Obamas, "during a one-day photo op,"  to hang laundry at the White House to encourage other Americans to follow suit..

The right2dry Web site boldy declares, as a banjo plays in the background: "It is the inalienable right of every, man, woman and child to line dry."