Keller @ Large: Sad That We Need 'Codes Of Conduct'

BOSTON (CBS) - When it comes to the personal freedoms that Americans enjoy, this surely must be a golden age.

But as Eleanor Roosevelt once noted, "with freedom comes responsibility."

If you can afford a car and the gas to put in it, you have great freedom to travel wherever you want, but you are not free to run red lights, or drive drunk. If you can afford a ticket to Fenway Park, you are free to cheer or boo, but not to spew racial slurs and other offensive remarks.

That should go without saying, but sadly, it doesn't.

And now Major League Baseball is about to join the other three major sports in imposing a "universal code of conduct" on fans at the ballpark.

It will probably turn out to be something like the NFL Fan Code of Conduct introduced in 2008, which bans "verbal or physical harassment" of other fans, use of "obscene language or gestures," "throwing objects onto the field," and so on.

An NFL executive summed up the philosophy back then: "Enjoy yourself, come root for your team, but don't infringe on the enjoyment of another fan."

Is that really so hard to understand and comply with?

It shouldn't be.

But as we've discussed so many times over the years, voluntary compliance with common sense courtesies seems to be a dying art, forcing social institutions – leagues, schools, cops and courts – to step in and do what parents and social pressure once took care of.

"For the person who is unwilling to grow up," Mrs. Roosevelt observed, the responsibility that comes with freedom is "a frightening prospect."

And, it seems, too much for too many to handle.