Thursday, July 1, 2010

Will You Do It For The Children?

It is July 1st. Today, Kansas joined a host of other states in banning a legal activity in public. It is no longer legal to smoke in most public places in the state of Kansas. After careful consideration of my May post on smoking in the state of Michigan, I came to the conclusion that my position on the harmful effects of second smoke was misguided. After all, the people who have successfully campaigned against smoking are only looking out for the health, safety, and welfare of their own persons and the lives of children who are forced to inhale the exhaled smoke from parents, other family members, and strangers in public venues that their parents force them to attend. Children are our future, and anything that we do to protect them is good. That’s why today I am announcing an initiative to further protect our country’s most vital natural resource, our children. Today, I am asking all concerned citizens to join me in stamping out the ill effects of second hand car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that there were 41,059 traffic fatalities in 2007, with only 12,998 coming from alcohol-related accidents. A car accident attorney website claims that a person dies in an automobile accident every 13 seconds in America. Two people will die in car accidents in the time it takes the average sixth grader to read this paragraph. That’s 115 people dying every day, almost 50,000 people dying each year. Statistical analysis of traffic fatalities suggests that discounting for vehicular suicide, cases where a person intentionally drives his or her car into a solid object for the purpose of ending the driver’s own life, the number of multiple vehicular deaths far outweigh single vehicular accidents. Let’s face it, the odds are that it won’t be your own car that kills you in an accident. It’s the front bumper of the Buick that just came through your windshield that does the most damage. It is safe to say that second hand car kills.

It is time follow in the footprints brazenly left by our brothers and sisters who have successfully banned the heinous act of smoking in public. It is time to contact our state and federal representatives and command them to act on our behalf. It is time to speak for all the young children who are forced against their will into a car or truck, strapped (trapped!) into car seats and forced to ride to where ever their parents take them. Their lives are placed at risk each and every day by thoughtless adults who have only their own interests in mind and fail to consider the effects of their actions on children. It is time to end the needless financial expenditures related to accident safety. In 2005, “there were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States…the financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars.” It is time to stop placing our emergency responders’ lives at risk on the roadways while they work at accident scenes and traffic continues to move around them. It is time to ban driving in public!

We must remember that driving is not a right, it is a privilege. If there is any one driving related idea that has stuck with me since I took driver’s education, it is the fact that driving is a privilege that can be revoked by the state. Well, that and the fact that if you see a bouncing ball in the street there is certain to be a child bouncing after it. It is time for the state to step in and protect all Americans by eliminating this dangerous behavior. I know that there are constitutional purists who ignorantly believe that we live in a free society. They cry for limited government. They are fools. But, foolish as they are, they are citizens with "rights," so certain exceptions must be placed in the law to protect their “rights.” It should be legal for them to drive their cars on their own driveways or in their garages as long as there are no children present. And they should be able to drive to casinos. We cannot enact any law that might negatively affect a casino!

Will you join me? Will you take a bold action to protect our nation? Will you do it for the kids? Will you ban second hand car?

11 comments:

Teacher Mommy said...

*crickets chirping*

Kid said...

I'm with you Arby,

Revolution!! For the people !!!!!!

TobyBo said...

our driver's ed class used that same training film with the bouncing ball coming into the road...

Some Guy said...

I drive a Buick. Why are you picking on us Buick drivers as the accident causers? I was with you up to that point. You're on your own now, Arby.

Anonymous said...

About the smoking... You know they have huge billboards now with a child strapped into a carseat and they say something along the lines of "You wouldnt strap your child into a gas chamber" or some crap like that :) Its illegal here to smoke with a child in the car but people still do it everyday..

And...


I get pissed off when I see people smoke right next to a public store entrance.. I just want to scream at them and tell them to move especially when I have my child with me (the trach/vent has to wear a surgical mask everywhere he goes child)

And just the other day I saw a lady pushing a stroller and holding a child while smoking..

*sigh*

Driving in public?? Umm sure! Ban it!! I dont think "cars" are mentioned in the constitution anyway

Opus #6 said...

That's the worst part of casinos. All the second hand cars.

jugglingpaynes said...

LOL! You know, if we banned public driving, we would reduce air pollution, which would also help the health of children, especially in inner cities!

I don't smoke, but I see how crazy the politicians are about their favorite taxable item. NY just raised the tax on cigarettes again as "a way to discourage smoking". I think the only reason they did it was because they couldn't get anyone on board with a tax on soda. They said they wanted to tax soda to prevent childhood obesity, because we all know that is the only way children get fat. :o)

Peace and Laughter!

Marlis said...

LOl, those darned cars will get you every time.

CrossView said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Subvet said...

Hey, what about ovens? Kids can't tell when an oven is on, how many get burned in a year due to placing their hands on the hot door?

We should go back to cooking over an open fire!

Big Doofus (Roger) said...

Here in Indiana we can only drive in the back of buildings for five minutes at a time and only once an hour.