Think Of The Idiots!
30 01 2007The “We have to protect the Darwinians” news always pisses me off. They’re usually instigated by CityTV, but not exclusively. When it’s been a while since the last “exposé”, they always go back to the tried and true crosswalks:
“Cars don’t stop for crosswalks!”
Of course, for the purpose of their filming, they choose narrow streets and press the button moments before the car has entered the crosswalk. Most of my experiences with people using crosswalks is that they press the button, then start walking. They assume that there’s enough time to stop, the roads are dry enough to stop, and that we even see them. They’ll lecture their kids about wearing bright colours at night, but then put on a black, wool jacket before going out to play in traffic themselves.
The latest “We have to protect the Darwinians” news is centred around tobogganing. Some kid rammed his head into a concrete wall and the citizens are up in arms.
Maybe it’s the Barrie-boy in me, but I doubt it. Other Torontonians agree with me on this. You’re heading to a concrete wall, you jump off. In fact, in the very news article on CityPulse, the reporter said, “As we were there (at the scene of the accident) several kids stopped only feet away from the same wall.”
The key word here is “stopped.” They stopped. They saw a solid object, and dove off the toboggan. They stopped.
Now there’s a campaign brewing to get kids to wear helmets.
I’m a geek and I grew up as one. But if I saw a kid wearing a helmet while tobogganing, even I would have to make fun of him.
Hillcrest Public School in Barrie had one of the best tobogganing hills. As the ball rolls, you’d wind up safe and sound at the bottom plateau on a Krazy Karpet. However, those of us with GT Snoracers would steer towards the trees, and see how hard we could hit the chainlink fence on the far side by entering the 30 feet of gauntlet as fast as possible and navigating the trees.
The statistic quoted in the news article is that seven people have died in Canada since 2003 from tobogganing accidents. Trying to make my heart bleed by telling me that “almost two people a year across Canada die from tobogganing accidents” isn’t going to work. Yes, I agree that ‘one is too many’, but I’m saying to choose your battles. Forty children die of AIDS during one hour of tobogganing.
Stop wasting my time.
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