Through the years when I was teaching American Government and the Constitution at the Air Force Academy, I observed cadets tended to be in one of two mindsets. There were those, a majority in fact, who had what I called “engineering minds,” for whom problems should be defined and the “correct” answer derived from the situation they were presented with.

The other type of mind I called the “fuzzy studies mind.” That comes from cadets labeling courses in things like political science, English, history and such as “fuzzy studies.” I wasn’t offended, in fact, I take pride in teaching fuzzy studies, as they require an ability to see beyond a single answer to a world of possibilities.

There were those rare cadets who were comfortable in either the “exact answer” world or the fuzzy world, but they were not common.

I suspect there is comfort to be found in subjects with exact and correct answers. Now, to the engineering and math faculty members out there, I know there are theoretical studies in your areas too, but I’m talking about what we teach at the undergraduate level. In physics, Force = Mass X Acceleration precisely, and is not a matter of opinion. What who is right or wrong on a question of, say, free speech, essentially never has a single “correct” answer.

I was reminded of the cadet way of thinking recently as I read an article in Colorado Politics that discussed Golden’s new ban on amplified music from street musicians. Yes, that’s how my mind works.

It seems in Golden there have been complaints, albeit by anonymous business owners, about the music coming from the many musicians in that tourist town, being, well, just too darn loud.

Washington Avenue in Golden, which until recently was filled with music, has been oddly quiet in recent days. The artists making the music have apparently packed up and headed for greener pastures, in this case the newly reinvigorated 16th Street Mall, where local officials have apparently welcomed them with open ears. They didn’t turn down their amplifiers, they just left town.

Take a moment to read the article so you have all the details, but were I back teaching at the Academy I would have approached the issue as an interesting example of how rights in conflict with each other can create thought-provoking ideas about the First Amendment.

The famous jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. is credited with first stating, as an explanation of what the First Amendment was all about, that your right to swing your arm ends where my nose begins. History is not clear on whether Holmes invented the phrase, as others have been credited with it as well, but it makes a lot of sense.

Simply put, your right to free expression is pretty absolute, until you interfere with someone else’s fundamental rights. The most common example in not yelling “fire” in a crowded theater or engaging in false commercial speech (“the New Ford gets 4,567 miles per gallon!”).

So, let’s think about the Golden rule (sorry, Editor, I couldn’t stop myself from making that joke at least once) regarding music volume. There previously was a city ordinance in place that restricted the volume of music street performers could create at 65 decibels. That’s roughly the volume of a dishwasher or conversations in a restaurant or office. Not super quiet nor super loud but pretty quiet for competing street musicians.

Some store owners apparently complained the folks enforcing the ordinance, with their decibel meters, would have musicians turn the volume down, only to see them crank it back up after the city official moved on. There is no evidence they turned it up to 11 (Editor: subtle joke).

And because of this pattern, the Golden City Council unanimously approved a ban on any amplified music on Golden’s streets. Acoustic instruments are fine, but nothing can be amplified. And the new ordinance worked, in that the streets of Golden are free from amplified music,

But the musicians didn’t just turn off their amplifiers. Rather, they decamped to Denver and the 16th Street Mall, where they were welcomed, amplifiers and all. You need a permit, but permits are free and grant you an 8-foot radius of space. There are no limits on decibels.

And so, in this case, the solution to the “swing your arm” issue appears to be to move said arms to a new place, with less sensitive noses. I can’t help wondering if the good people of the Golden City Council might be regretting their rather absolutist rule.

During the various military assignments I had in D.C., I crossed paths with street musicians many times each day. Most exits of the Metro subway found people playing for money, as well as on many street corners. Some of the music I liked, and some I didn’t. And when I didn’t, I walked away. I moved, so to speak, my nose, out of range.

Now, I certainly can understand if a storekeeper found a loud group of musicians near his or her front door, playing loudly enough to keep people scurrying past rather than into the store, but I suspect there are ways of dealing with the issue. Oh, and I can’t help but wonder about the current situation when, to my absolute horror, a certain failed felon ordered federal troops on to the streets of the nation’s capital, but that’s an entirely different essay for another time.

Oh, and a tad off subject, way back in 2007, one of the most celebrated violin virtuosos did an experiment. He grabbed his Stradivarius violin and headed to a subway station in Washington D.C. Hidden cameras recorded his world-class skill but hardly anyone stopped to listen. Some did and were transfixed.

Now, that’s not really a fair test, in that people entering or leaving a subway’s station are on their way somewhere, but it is an interesting test. No one appears, at least, to have been offended. You can watch the performance here.

Clearly, subway violinists and street musicians are not a major crisis in any city. But it is interesting to see how differently Golden and Denver responded to the artists performing their music for the public. Some of the musicians indicated they would return to Golden if the rules changed, but others are now committed to Denver.

We live in a world of constantly swinging arms and mobile noses. Some collisions are inevitable but how we choose to react to such collisions is up to us. The thinking in Golden was more along the lines of my “engineering-minded” cadets, who saw 65 decibels as being a precise, easily measured, and appropriate limit, while Denver, more “fuzzy study-minded” is more content with no single precise level of music being correct.

I think Denver got this one right. Time will tell. Stay tuned (Ed: another music joke?)

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.