After reading Mark Snyder's discussion, my comments are that this situation with traffic-law violators reminds me of the issue of johns and the posting of their pictures on the Web. There was a lot of aggravation about that, but my thought was "well, individuals have plenty of freedom to deal with this. They just have to find another way to get rid of tension, such as yoga." I thought that some of us were tired of the hookers getting all the flack and approved Chief Finney putting some of the heat on the johns. Well, the same applies to careless drivers. If they don't want their picture on photocop, why do WE need to take action to assure that. They aren't going to show up in a public document if they merely OBEY THE LAWS. And what sense is there to a suggestion that we change the laws so they conform to the practices of a certain subset of the population. Seems to me that SAFETY is the criterion for what the laws should say. And the question is how to enforce needed laws. Do we really think that we can hire enough policemen to blanket the trouble spots? I'm not against it, but I don't see it as a practical reality. Besides, we use technology all over our society to replace certain types of jobs, so what's the problem here? Do people who don't like photocops want to go back to where computers didn't maintain records of the checks they write? Those could be misused by a tyrannical government, too.
By the way, one wonders why there is such a falloff in older groups. Do they stay out of harms way? I mean, I've seen older folk crossing Minneapolis streets and cheer for them to make it across before the SUVs can mow them down. Maybe it is just a case that you have to get that old to finally USE YOUR BRAINS. Plus, Darwinian selection determines that you don't get that old unless you know how not to press your luck in traffic. "How do we answer those heartfelt concerns without sacrificing things we ultimately value as much, if not more? " Describe what you value more than the life of an innocent pedestrian? By the way, in what way have the cameras that watch the freeway traffic been misused? Doesnt it MATTER a little that we've had traffic surveillance for decades without it being misused? Of course, you could also argue that that was softening us up for THIS, but once again, the source of all this trouble, folks, is the inability of some of us to see a red light and just put on the brakes. Its this "I'm moving" frame of mind that didn't plague drivers a few decades back. Frankly, after I took a refresher course on safe driving, I just stopped my gut reaction to red lights. I just take them as a driving signal that traffic is supposed to cease moving one way. And my stress level has dropped as my safety level has increased. I think we have a behavioral spiral here. People who deal with stress by speeding, and then get further stressed out when they see lights ahead turning red. "Fixing" the lights only enables the downward spiral. Homelessness You know, a lot was done to encourage people to overspend during the '90s. Maybe that is contributing to homelessness now as eternal prosperity is exposed as a social illusion. Plus, you know, they have been hardening up the bankruptcy laws to complete the double bind on consumers. Junk Mail I recycle my junk mail. I don't know the cost of this, but I bless the day they started accepting junk mail in recycle. I get rid of more than half of each day's mail pile into the recycle bag. Ability-Grouping I am all for the idea of grouping people according to their ability in the subject matter. Some geniuses failed subjects outside the span of their genius. -------------- Jim Mork--Cooper "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be call the Children of God." Matt 5:9 http://www.unitedforpeace.org Get your free Web-based E-mail at http://www.startribune.com/stribmail _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
