The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Righting Religion

2.21.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 5)

In our safety-obsessed culture, the outward appearance of risking your health is a big no-no. And perception is nine tenths of the flaw. Hypocrisy easily covers the rest.
-- Douglas Findlay
State Director,
ABATE of Virginia, Inc.

Boy, this is tough one. Freedom is a very important part of the bike riding experience. There's something about getting on my Electra-Glide and just riding; doesn't matter where as long as I'm riding.

But this helmet thing, to me, isn't an issue of freedom. It's a necessity! I was forced of the road last year and ended up dropping my bike at about 5-10 mph. That doesn't sound too fast; heck, people can RUN that fast. But I bounced and rolled a number of times along the side of the road. Banged up both knees and shoulders and they still bother me. But the scariest thing of all was looking at my helmet afterwards. Prior to the drop, it didn't have a scratch on it. Afterwards, it looked like someone had beaten it with a spike strip. There was one real major gash just above the right temple. That could have been my bare head.

I don't care WHAT the laws are, or what the riding conditions are, that helmet will ALWAYS be on my head while riding a bike. There were times last summer when it was 100+, I was stuck in a traffic jam, but I would NOT remove that helmet.

Now, let's talk about those bike riders wearing sandals. Jeez...
-- Karl F. Auerbach
Eden, Utah

Freedom of speech, freedom of association, and (most important) freedom FROM governmental nanny-state intervention is a mainstay of life in Big Sky country. I've lived all over the United States, but I've never lost the Montana "leave me alone" pseudo-libertarian consciousness, and I hope I never will. When I tell folks from New Jersey that I grew up in a place that had open range laws, no sales tax, little (if any) gun control (and, therefore, little if any violent crime...gee, I wonder if there is a connection there?) and for a short, glorious period, a speed limit that required drivers to take responsibility for their own safety, I get nothing but incredulous stares. It is quite difficult for a lot of people to understand the dual concepts of individual freedom and personal responsibility, but for Montanans it is simply taken for granted.
-- Daniel McNamee
Somerville, New Jersey

I have no objection to (motorized or otherwise) bike riders going about without wearing helmets -- if, and only if, laws are passed to make such action an automatic (And not revocable by rider or family) offer of body parts for transplants and other medical uses when such persons are declared brain dead after an accident. (As opposed to their being brain dead for not wearing a helmet).
-- James Pawlak

Motorcycle riders could wear helmets or not wear helmets -- they could get killed by not wearing one -- but they have got to realize that somebody has to clean up after them.
-- Robert Nowall
Cape Coral, Florida

HATING BUSH, LOVING GORE
Re: The Washington Prowler's Convenient Truths:

I'd like to comment on two of the subjects. First Mr. Bush will get little mileage from "friendly fireside" chats with the media. The media has pathology when it comes to Republicans and President Bush particularly. The President would be much better off talking to the American people.

Second: It is good to be the Prince of Tennessee, he of whom little is expected and even less delivered. Mr. Gore cares not a feather or a fig about global warming. Mr. Gore cares about Mr. Gore and keeping his now rustically casual figure in the public eye. And why does no one ever ask where this son of a poor Tennessee farmer turned Senator, always underpaid, and himself never having held any kind of real job gets all this money? Prince Albert gets by with a little help from his friends, just like the former king of Arkansas, King William the Gross does.
-- Jay Molyneaux
Denver, North Carolina

LEARNING FROM ANNA
Re: Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder's A Trip to the Bakery:

Messrs. Mason & Felder's attack on a woman who was not their intellectual equal and who has died extremely young was at best tasteless, at worst uncharitable.

Although I personally made every effort to avoid reporting of Ms. Smith and her actions during her short life, the facts remain that she failed to see her 40th birthday and that a small child has been left motherless.

Maybe TAS could have hired Theodore Dreiser to write her obituary by seance. He might have understood Anna Nicole Smith rather better than the obituarists she got.
-- Martin Kelly
Glasgow, Scotland

Letter to the Editor

topics:
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