Free hugs?
Hannah Nicholas, Staff Reporter
February 9, 2012
Filed under Opinion
We’ve probably all seen it-when people hold “Free Hugs” signs on street corners or malls or some other public place. Are these free huggers just really friendly, or weird and creepy? I’ve been asking people this question, and their answers are all pretty much the same: it’s weird. Unless it was someone they knew, they would not want to hug them.
Senior Emily DeFord says, “I like hugging people, but it seems suspicious on a street corner. I guess in certain situations it makes sense.”
From asking around, I have also discovered the creepiness factor goes up with age. Most people I’ve asked said they would probably hug a teenager, but not a middle-aged person.
Senior Tyce Lee agrees. He says, “I think it’s a funny thing for kids to do, but with middle-aged adults it gets creepy.”
So it’s weird, but is it enough to get you arrested? It shouldn’t be. The First Amendment of the Constitution protects your right to free speech and peaceable assembly. However, it still happens. In New York at Times Square, people have been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and blocking traffic because they were holding up “Free Hugs” signs. This isn’t right. As far as I know, these people were pretty peaceful.
Does it make sense for a man to hold up a free hugs sign on a busy pedestrian street corner? Juan Mann, whose mission is to “reach out and hug a stranger and brighten up their lives”, does exactly that. As part of his Free Hugs campaign, he stands on street corners trying to make people smile as a “symbol of human hope”. This man seems pretty harmless to me; he is only trying to reach out and make someone’s day a little brighter.
I think that while it’s an odd thing to do, I understand the idea behind it. I appreciate the concept of helping people with small acts of kindness. I just think that there are better ways to go about it. Most people seem to find free huggers creepy or mysterious.
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