Skip to main content

How Dare You Tell Me What To Do?????

No sooner had the weather turned decent than the local newspaper declared "Return of motorcycle season in Connecticut kickstarts old helmet law debate." And just as predictably, the online comments kickstarted the usual "evil nanny Government" responses.

Here's how I responded:

"You don't want to wear a helmet, jacket, whatever? Fine. But hear this: when you hit the road, your skin will be destroyed along with your limbs. Sound too dramatic?

My husband and I were involved in an accident last week when a car turned left in front of us. My husband, the driver, "laid the bike down" and we - and the bike on top of us on its side - went skidding down the rode. My ankle is broken, his leg was badly broken (requiring surgery).

The good news? Had we not been wearing helmets, reinforced jackets, heavy-weight pants and boots, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that we would have suffered much, much worse - trauma to our brains and internal organs, not to mention hideous road rash on our arms and backs.

You don't want to wear appropriate protection? Fine. Be an idiot. But if the government is willing to help me protect myself, I personally welcome the opportunity. If you happen to be protected as well, that's all the better. The only "right" you lose is the right to destroy yourself and involve others in horrendous tragedy.

The government also tells you not to cross the street on a red light - is that too much interference, too?"
My post received several responses. One person said that her helmet was uncomfortable (to which I reply: then go get another one at a reputable store - the only thing that should hurt when you're wearing a helmet is the thought of having to rewash/style your hair when you take the thing off).

But the others were your ROTM evil Government bile:
- Perhaps the government should supply you with a live in safety monitor. He can follow you around your house to make sure you don't do anything stupid like sticking a butter knife in the toaster to get the toast out. This nanny state garbage is sickening.
- From the comment in your first post it sounds like you welcome others to take care of you and make decisions for you. Not me. I do just fine without big brother interfering.
My favorite:
As of now, we riders still have the freedom to decide which flavor of freedom we'd like. I'd like to keep it that way. We give up too many of those freedoms and soon we'll be goose-stepping and sieg-heiling and calling each other "comrades." *shudder*
The bottom line is this: we have become a paranoid nation where way too many of us have drawn a straight line from structure/law to dictatorship to the place where Ayn Rand meets Emma Goldman.

God bless America - unless of course you think God's out to get you. In that case, have a nice day.

Comments

Ira J. Wise said…
Glad I found your blog!

You leave out one other point that the -I-don't-need-no-stinkin-helmet folks don't mention or perhaps think about.

If they are scraped off the pavement and survive, and if they don;t have health insurance, be assured that they will expect the emergency room to treat them and the public hospital and the government to pay for their care.

Freedom to be an idiot--absolutely. But don't ask the rest of us to pay to clean up their mess!

Will start missing you at cmap tomorrow!

Popular posts from this blog

Anti-Reform Reformers?

I'm really struggling with this one. During a recent public (and mixed, meaning there were people there who are not Jewish professionals, or better yet, professional Jews) discussion on the relationship between Judaism and nature, a professional Jew who is affiliated with the Reform movement commented on witnessing Reform Rabbinic students at the top of Mt. Sinai during a sunrise tefillah. Many of the students wore tefillin, all wore tallitot/kippot, and all were facing east. Except that *Jerusalem* was to the *north,* yet they were facing *east.* I heard much derision in the commentator's voice: the voice/words implied they were worshipping the sun and not praying to God, they were obviously ignorant of the fact that Jerusalem was to the north, they were obviously ignoramuses ... leading the audience to infer that the Reform movement is being led by a bunch of ignorant, uneducated morons. Here are the questions I'm struggling with. 1. Why were these Reform rabbinic studen...

Seeing Things - Rosh Hashanah Day 2 Devar Torah

God said to Abraham: take your son by the hand. God said to Abraham: you gotta take him by the hand (take him by the hand). Take your son, your only son – Isaac, yeah, that’s the one. Moriah is where you’ll be when you offer up your boy to me. God said to Abraham: take your son by the hand. God said to Abraham: you gotta take him by the hand (take him by the hand). At first glance, the Akedah appears cut and dried: God “tests” Avraham’s commitment by demanding that Avraham offer his son, the only one he has left, as a sacrifice to God. And the traditional lesson of this parashah is that – especially on Rosh Hashanah – we trust God, we have faith that God will do right by us, we enter into the period of Asarah Y’mei Teshuvah believing that God will answer us, just as God answered Avraham’s unspoken prayer that his hand will be stilled from killing his child. Avraham has experience in trusting God; according to our Sages, the Akedah is the tenth such time God has tested Avraham’s faith. ...