So, I'm watching ABC news yesterday and today because Mad watches ABC news around the dinner hour....
Much angst over the fact that adults and children were mowed down by some (fill in the blank because I don't know exactly who they are - cellphone watcher? Vermin? Don't know)
Anyway NATIONAL NEWS. No where during this NEWS cast did anyone think to suggest to "parents" or even the children themselves, that it might be to their benefit to actually LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE CROSSING THE STREET.
(Let us realize that Local news people actually suggest folks put on their booties and/or take an umbrella when it's forecasted to freakin rain........)
IMO, a responsible NEWS CAST would at least mention that it is unwise to assume that drivers will actually stop for flashy lights or even little octagon shaped red and white "Stop" sign that pops out when a school bus stops to pick up kids on their way to communist/marxist/socialist indoctrination centers.
When this school bus and crossing zone shit started YEARS ago, I immediately predicted that suggesting people and kids could let their guard down even 1% based on the idea that "safety programs" were in place around schools would reduce the individual's perceived need for self-accountability and protection and replace it with some stupid moronic idea that flashy lights, pop out stop signs, and 20 mph speed limits around schools would keep them safe to the point they would not have to actually look right and left when crossing a road to see if some POS of any flavor was about to make them a hood ornament was misguided.
I'm no genius. This crap isn't hard. Things aren't getting better.
We do not well-prepare our children for a rough and tumble world by molly-coddling them. Should youngsters assume that just because they are crossing a highway motorists will stop? Or even see them? Big mistake.
ReplyDeleteMustang, Unreal isn't it. We could take this conversation in a million different directions as well.
DeleteIt's amazing...I see mothers with babies in strollers wearing ear buds who just step into the crosswalk (stop sign, no light) and expect you to stop. People just step off the curb...it's YOUR problem!!??? We remember our mothers teaching us to stop, wait, watch, right? God forbid responsibility lies on our kids...that's the new message!!
ReplyDeleteZ, It's all over youtube too. UNreal. I still look both ways when driving when the light turns green. This has saved me from many an accident.
DeleteThere are some cases where I think the driver was completely at fault. Some woman just mowed down and killed three siblings and put a 4th kid in the hospital in critical condition. She blew right past the school bus (driving in the opposite direction) and judging from the front of her pick up being so smashed in she must have been driving super fast. Checking her phone? Even if those kids had looked they couldn't have foreseen this happening.
ReplyDeleteBut I totally agree with the not paying attention. I happened to drive by the high school and elementary school yesterday just as they were getting out for the day. None of the little brats paid the slightest bit of attention to the traffic. They didn't so much as take a quick peek to see if anyone was coming. They just assumed everyone would stop. They're going to be in for a huge shock when they get out in the big bad world.
Adrienne, Thank you. As a general theme, society seems to (imo) be impressing on people that rules make them safe. In the end that may be a good thing as people notice that rules don't do much for them - especially in today's society.
DeleteI drove for about fifty years. I learned how to drive IN and AROUND New York City! My mother taught me how to drive. before was fifteen. She'd take me to the high school parking lot, –– almost always deserted on weekends ––, and let me take the wheel so I got good at making basic maneuvers –– starting, stopping, crclig the parking lot, backing up, parking between the white lines, and parallel parking, etc.
DeleteThe very first day I got my learner's permit, mother said, "Okay, get behnd the wheel, we're going to drive into New York and back." It never occurred to me to have any doubts in those days, so I got behind the wheel with mother in the front seat, and drove across the George Wshungtin Bridge, down the West Side Highway, around the Battery, up the East River Drive onto the Cross Bronx Expressway, then back across the George Washington Bridge, then home.
An EXHILARATING experience for a 17-year-old!
My mother always expressed great confidence in me, bless her heart, BUT she always said, "NEVER FORGET a CAR is an INSTRUMENT of DEATH You must NEVER take your eyes off the road, and NEVER let anything or anyone DISTRACT you no matter what."
Consequently, I've made a point all my life of expecting that everybody ELSE on the road is HOMICIDAL MANIAC just HOPING for a CHANCE to SMASH ME to SMITHEREENS. And no, I am NOT kidding.
That doesn't mean I was always afraid, but I was very very VERY cautious, and it paid off very well forseveral decades, UNTIL on a bright sunny Sunday morning on my way to join friends for Sunday brunch ten years ago , I stopped at a red light, looked, listened, and looked again in all directions. The light turned green, and so I started to cross the intersection, got nearly halfway across when WHAM! BAM! ALAKAZAM! a poor fool in a big statin wagon SPED right through the red light, and completely DESTROYED my almost-new Toyota Scion. The car was a total loss, but –– miraculously –– I wasn't hurt a bit, and wound up sittng on the curb with the driver who hit me waiting for the police to arrive. He was so upset, he was literlly shaking. I really felt sorry for him, and believe it or not wound up consoling HIM and then taking HIM to breakfast.
So yeah, we can NEVER be completely safe, because there are ALWAYS fools, morons, and daydreamers out there, and we can NEVER fully anticipate who, where or how they might strike JUST when we least expect it.
Rules are not necessarily BAD, but we cannot emphasize strongly enough that ruesdon't work, unless they are OBEYED.
And sad as it it to have to say, people who do NOT take proper precautions for their own safety –– and particularly that of their children –– frankly DESERVE to DIE.
I hear ya Franco. Smart Mom ! We did the same thing ourselves - taught ourselves how to drive using many of the same methods.
DeleteI rode motorcycle for 20 years and that (if nothing else) taught me to be a defensive driver. As you said and I experienced - I assumed everyone was out to kill me and I rode accordingly. A motorcycle will never win a battle with a car, got to be 100% defensive driver.