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Ever since I was born, as was most of us, we were told what was good for us and what was not. Most of the suggestions given made sense. I mean logic dictates that if your friend is stupid enough to jump off of the roof you shouldn’t do the same. Well when you’re young I guess it depends on how high the roof is and what’s waiting for you at the bottom, but it’s good advice nonetheless.
The advice does start to get annoying during your teenage years. As we all know those are the years when you are at your smartest, or at least you think so at the time. Regardless of what the nature of the advice may be, you and your infinite knowledge know better. It is during this time in your life that you start laying down the rules that good or bad you will follow for the rest of your life.
Unfortunately as adults in this day and age, instead of your parental units dolling out the rules, we have to deal with the never-ending parade of government agencies taking their place. If there is something that you enjoy doing or don’t feel like doing you can bet that somebody involved in the government circus will come up with a way to make it illegal to do or pass laws to make you do it.
Many times it seems as though they have their priorities a bit askew but I guess it’s whose agenda is being served that week. This last Memorial Day Weekend it was the CHP’s turn. Through a massive advertising campaign they were going after what they apparently deemed the biggest threat to life and limb here in California, the evil and dangerous non-seatbelt wearing drivers.
Now I agree that any minor traveling in a car, newborn to seventeen, it should not be an option. As long as their craniums are still soft and squishy they need to be strapped down and protected. But I’m an adult, one that was raised in the day when it wasn’t mandatory to wear a seatbelt. Now that I am nearing fifty years old trying to re-program me into doing so is not something that is going to come easy, no matter how many times you interrupt my Lakers game to threaten me to “click it or ticket.”
My wife, who has worked in the legal profession for over twenty years, has tried her best to convert me but the inner rebel in me still fights it. Elvis, Fonzie, and James Dean never wore seat belts. OK maybe James Dean is the wrong example, but you older people out there know what I mean. Aside from being uncomfortable, it just doesn’t feel cool. It’s just another attempt of “The Man” to hold us down.
My wife, who in the course of doing her job, is privy to numerous grisly photographs of auto accidents, has given it the old college try. Trying to scare me with her vivid descriptions of said photographs in her attempts to get me to “buckle up.” But as you may have guessed, I’m a tough nut to crack. Besides it wrinkles my clothes.
The other one that had its day a few years ago, especially after the Billy Idol and Gary Busey incidents, was the helmet law. Personally, I found using these two celebrities as the poster children for the helmet law unfair. Primarily because these two guys scrambled their brains long before they even got on a motorcycle. It worked though and now everyone who is on a motorcycle or a bicycle is forced to wear a helmet.
I used to ride a motorcycle back and forth to work. After the law was passed I stopped. Primarily because I couldn’t find a helmet that didn’t make me look even geeker than I already am. I have seen this sentiment passed on to my son who fights wearing a helmet when riding his bike. Even though I don’t agree with the law I still try to enforce it. But his attitude is the same as mine, and because of that he rarely rides his bike anymore. Gee I wish I knew that before buying him the bike.
To me it’s sad that this law is discouraging my son from engaging in an activity that I found so much joy in my youth. While I am sure that it may save some lives and prevents some injuries it should be, as the seat belt law should be, a personal choice. My friends and I never wore helmets and we all somehow miraculously managed to make it through our youth. The only injuries we ever incurred were an occasional scraped knee or elbow. I’m sure that if this trend continues in the future we won’t allow kids on a bike unless they are encased in Teflon.
Another thing that has become more and more annoying is that many of the films that are coming out that the kids want to see are rated R. This, as you all know, means that nobody under 17 can see the movie unless they’re accompanied by an adult. This is not a law, it is a voluntary system implemented by the theatres. Unfortunately not all theatres, just like not all R rated films, are the same.
While I can’t vouch for your kids I know what mine are capable of seeing. Some kids are just more mature than others and are able to understand what they are seeing. With all of the information swirling around in print or on the Internet it doesn’t require a parent a lot of investigation to know exactly what a film is all about. So if I determine that one of my kids, who are both under 17, can see a movie that has been given an R rating they should be allowed to see it without a hassle.
Usually it depends on who is sitting at the box office window. Sometimes they can get in and sometimes they can’t. The only way to insure their admittance is for my wife or I to go with them. I don’t know what your schedule is like, but that is not always in the cards.
In a world that usually doesn’t offer up solutions to problems, a theatre chain in Illinois apparently has. They’ve been doing some thinking about this problem and have come up with a viable solution. The GKC theatre chain has begun offering what they are calling an R Card. If the parent and the child come to the theatre, fill out a form, pay a one-time charge of $2.00, then the child is issued a card that allows them to see R rated movies without having to have a parent present. It is such a simple plan that it’s amazing that nobody came up with it sooner.
I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we adopt this program here. Wouldn’t it be great if we could rescind the current laws pertaining to seatbelts and helmets to make it a choice instead of something mandatory that we could be fined for?
Instead of wasting money on campaigns for seatbelts and helmets the CHP and police should focus on real problems. Like drivers who don’t pull to the side of the road when an ambulance is approaching or ones who don’t use their turn indicators when turning. If they are looking for money from tickets, I think they would be far more profitable with these.
As soon as they do that I will be the first in line to get my “Seatbelt or Helmet Card.” I’m sure my parents will sign off on it.
The Shrub Speaks: I want to thank my friend, Senator Bill Frist, for joining us today. You're doing a heck of a job. You cut your teeth here, right? That's where you started practicing? That's good. He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, May 27, 2004
B.D.’s Response: “A girl, just like me!” Aw Shucks Dubya, I had no idea.
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