OT: for people over 25 years old

I liked this; hope that you do too. KathyH

People over 25 should be dead. To the survivors:

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's probably shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors! We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.

We had friends! We went outside and found them.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And you're one of them!

Congratulations. Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors?

A must read for people over 25 yrs of age.

Reply to
mkahogan
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So do I. But that could be because I'm only alive because of a seat belt..... Barbara Dream Master

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"We've got two lives, one we're given, the other one we make." Mary Chapin Carpenter

Reply to
Barbara Otterson

same with me. after a horrible car accident i was in when i was 13, i've been a safety freak ever since.

Reply to
Jalynne

yep, our rule is, we don't even start the car until everyone is safely buckled...boy does my dad hate that...hehe

Reply to
Jalynne

Ive never been in a horrible accident, nor anyone Ive known personally, but I have read the studys, and read the stories from survivors and know that the injurys they sustained would have been deadly had they not been wearing a seat belt. The car doesnt move till we are buckled in. Diana

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Reply to
Diana Curtis

I am a dipsh-- about buckling up. I do it, but I am usually 2 or 3 blocks down the road. Our car beeps at you if you don't buckle up. I know it's stupid. I feel like, I gave up cigarettes, drugs, booz, I have to have some "edge". I know that this is stupid. I don't wear a bike helmet either. The seatbelt does not bother me in the least, it's just not a habit for me. I hate bike helmets. I have short hair which is curly, but is quickly squished beyond help. Also, I like the feeeling of not wearing a helmet. This is only on a pedal bike, I wear a motorcycle helmet, when I ocassionally get on one. Kathy H

Reply to
mkahogan

The way I feel about helmets, buckles, .. all safety laws meant to keep adults safer... they need to be our choice. If you choose not to wear a helmet its your head that would get injured. If that risk is acceptable to you then go for it! I realize that the cost to the public from injuries to people not wearing protective devices is higher but life is full of risks and adults need to be able to decide which are acceptable to them. We cant live life in a bubble. On the other hand the laws made to protect children (in general) are fine with me. We, as a group of adults, are trying to take care of people who are to young to make an informed choice for themselves and whose parents sometimes take risks that are unacceptable to the majority of peoples thinking. Diana.

Reply to
Diana Curtis

Which is fine. But the public cost of caring for those who chose not to wear seat belts is too high as it is. Particularly when you factor in the fact that the US does not have universal health care. It means the rest of us have to pick up the tab for what amounts to millions of dollars a year for those permanently injured in vehicular accidents. If you can show that you carry enough insurance to cover you for the rest of your life, including being paralyzed, go for it. You should also have no off-spring that are not of age. At that point - hang glide, ride a motorcycle without a brain bucket, mountain bike and bungee jump to your heart's content. I too believe that the govt. interferes waaaaay too much in our lives. But I also feel a big responsibility for how much drain I put on others. So, I carry 12 million in medical, plus long-term disability insurance. My kids are out on their own. I do what I want, which includes some risky stuff. Now, can somebody get me off this soapbox? It's too far down and my knees are shot......... Barbara Dream Master

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"We've got two lives, one we're given, the other one we make." Mary Chapin Carpenter

Reply to
Barbara Otterson

My bike helmet saved my noggin. Felt my head bounce three or four times on the pavement when I landed.

When the damage was assessed, it turned out I had a badly broken arm ... nerve damage that wasn't really 'all better' for a couple of years. But I knew my own name, where I was, what happened and in what order. Even if I had been permanently disabled, I would still have been recognizably *me*.

Could have been a lot different without the helmet.

Deirdre

Reply to
Deirdre S.

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Deirdre S. :

]Could have been a lot different without the helmet.

on a bicycle or motorcycle, yes, a helmet will *maybe* help. but i worked ER. sometimes, on the second "bounce" the helmet shatters

- as does the enclosed head. do we ban motorcycles???

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

Nothing is totally indestructible. But taking reasonable precautions and using reasonable protections, like seat belts and helmets seems ... well, *reasonable*.

Deirdre

Reply to
Deirdre S.

Bike helmets are also compulsory in Oz, not that a lot of pre-teen and teenagers wear them... but people can be booked for not wearing one if the police can be bothered, they usually just give warning.

Reply to
melinda

Might as well ban cars too. (too many accidents). And bath tubs. There's a dangerous item. Oh, and kitchen knives. People are always getting cut with them. There's a line between keeping oneself safe and sometimes even safer--as technology advances-- and just being obsessed with being "safe". Barbara Dream Master

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"We've got two lives, one we're given, the other one we make." Mary Chapin Carpenter

Reply to
Barbara Otterson

The thing is, we are only truly safe if we regulate away freedom. With Communism they had lots of police and little crime, but even less freedom. Same thing applies to "safety". My problem is that, as with crime and Communism, when we regulate safety to this degree we teach people not to make good decisions and take responsibility for their\our actions.

Tina

"Barbara Otterson" wrote

Reply to
Christina Peterson

Why can't he wear a helmet? How does wearing one affect him?

And I hope he doesn't end up an organ donor at an early age because of it...

I agree that it isn't really possible to coerce people into self-care, or even preserving themselves for the sake of their family, who count on their continued existence. And even where helmets are the law, some folks still ride without them. But personally, I wouldn't risk it. I have twice had a close encounter between myself on a two-wheeled vehicle and my partner in collision behind the wheel of a steel-encased four-wheeled vehicle.

My experience says that it doesn't matter whether you were being careful or careless, had the right-of-way, or didn't -- the person on the two-wheeler is the one who will end up on the pavement in various states of disrepair.

Deirdre

Reply to
Deirdre S.

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Deirdre S. :

]Why can't he wear a helmet? How does wearing one affect him?

does it really matter? if it does, a properly fitted helmet - of any kind - gives him massive nasty migraines.

]And I hope he doesn't end up an organ donor at an early age because of ]it...

well, he's coming up on 50. and very, very good.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Christina Peterson" :

]The thing is, we are only truly safe if we regulate away freedom. With ]Communism they had lots of police and little crime, but even less freedom. ]Same thing applies to "safety". My problem is that, as with crime and ]Communism, when we regulate safety to this degree we teach people not to ]make good decisions and take responsibility for their\our actions.

bingo! thanks, Tina.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

Sorry. I'm nosy. I just couldn't think of any kind of impairment that would let you ride a motorcycle, but not wear a helmet ...

Migraines certainly fit the bill.

If how 'good' he is were the only factor, that would be great. But what about how 'good' the people who share the road with him are? That's the factor that puts a helmet on my head or a seat belt around my waist and chest.

I am a pretty careful person on the road, but I know that there are days where I'm not as sharp as I'd like to be, and not safely tuned in every single second. On a bad day, I am capable of lapses that could endanger not only me, but other people. Which is why I hope *they* wear their helmets and seat belts, too...

Deirdre

Reply to
Deirdre S.

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Deirdre S. :

]If how 'good' he is were the only factor, that would be great. But ]what about how 'good' the people who share the road with him are?

oh, i understand. if you are going to ride a motorcycle, you need to be at least TWICE as good as the other drivers out there. my problem is - i can see it from his point, too. and having ridden motorcycles for several years, i hated the helmet. yes, i wore it, but it really impaired my vision.

when the helmet law went into effect here, he sold his original bike and used the money for laser eye surgery. this was the e-mail i got from him recently:

"After burying 2 of my friends this last week, I decided to quit putting off buying another motorcycle. The new one is a 1997 Harley Davidson Road King. Simply put, it resembles the last one. But it's green. Now if I can just remember how to ride one. They say it's like riding a bike but I don't remember peddling at 65 mph."

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

I -do- understand this POV. There aren't many things as pleasurable as feeling connected to your environment with all your senses as you travel through it. And the helmet puts a damper on that 'wind in the hair' rush.

Risks are things you weigh and prepare for, IMO, not things you (can) avoid altogether.

But let's say I am a father with dependent children, and I am not willing to avoid riding a motorcycle without a helmet while they are minors -- I'd make darn sure my insurance was paid up, that my coverage was adequate, and my spouse was willing/able to carry on without me. Or to carry on -with- me, in a permanently disabled state. Because my freedom to do as I wish is connected to other people's fate and quality of life, as well as my own. If I am risking myself, I am risking them, as well.

I won't argue against such a person's rights of self-determination. But I will argue that exercising those rights makes them responsible for staying aware of the outward ripples of consequence. That is all I hope people who want to be able to choose their risks will do.

Deirdre

Reply to
Deirdre S.

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