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Greetings, interested readers and supportive family members. This is the inaugural edition of, well, I am not sure what to call it yet. I am still working on that. Rather than wait for a name, however, I am plunging ahead. The name “Christianity” was not invented until years after Jesus had come and gone and if he had waited around for the name my dad would probably have had to get another job (one which required more than one day of work a week.) Anywho, you, gentle reader, were selected to receive this first ever edition of “_________” for being in the very select group of people in my internet address book. Feel proud! Take you time to read over today’s thought and see what you think. If the writing does not seem cogent or relevant to your life, just write and cancel and you will not be sent any further issues. You will always have ten days in which to look over the selection before you will be charged. Just kidding (you will be charged no matter what you do.) I am like a low-budget microphone here-I crave feedback. Let me know, and I will continue to strive to improve performance (at least, as far as you know.) On with today’s lesson:
Friday night at dinner, I was sitting outside my Aunt and Uncle’s restaurant with my family enjoying the pleasant evening air. At one point, several motorcycles bearing surly looking men (sort of like my Uncle Terry with fewer tattoos) rode by. My father commented in spite of their ratty appearance, he had to commend them for wearing helmets, and went on to decry his own state’s lack of a motorcycle helmet law.
I have heard this argument before from my parents, among others. I cannot claim to speak as eloquently as they might on the issue but if I were to summarize their position I believe it would be:
Motorcycles are dangerous statistically anyway, and if the driver were to be in an accident his/her chance of coming out the accident unhurt or alive are significantly less than if he/she had solid steel all around him, as a car would provide. Furthermore, since motorcycle crashes without helmets are bloodier society spends more on police and EMT’s and the like getting to the accidents and trying to save the injured. This in turn makes our (i.e. people who don’t drive motorcycles) expenses greater, and we do not get the benefit of driving the machines. The argument for seatbelts runs along similar lines.
I would answer these lines of reasoning with the following rebuttal: First, anytime a bigger vehicle meets a smaller vehicle the smaller vehicle, as well as the passenger(s) are more likely to be hurt and possibly killed. With the explosion of popularity of SUV and light truck-based vehicles, we are seeing a tremendous rise in the fatality rates of those people in automobiles smaller than the SUV’s and similar vehicles. Do we blame the guy in the Honda? To me, this is an area of personal responsibility. I have long been an advocate on throwing the book, bowling ball, electric knife and whatever else is available at drunk drivers. Their actions endanger other people, by going out onto to the roads in such an impaired condition.
This problem does not exist with a non-helmeted motorcyclist, or someone not wearing a seat belt. This is an issue of personal choice more than public endangerment. Except in the extreme case of someone flying through the windshield because of no seatbelt and striking someone else, I fail to see where the person going without seat belts is endangering society. With motorcycle helmets, the argument gets even weaker, as it is virtually impossible to even imagine a scenario where a non-helmeted person is going to make life more dangerous for another driver.
The popular answer here is money. By not wearing seat-belts or helmets, the argument goes, any accident is likely to be much more bloody, which in turn raises the cost to society in general. I have not seen any hard figures about what the added cost would be of seat belt and helmet non-usage. However, it seems logical that there would be some increase, so let us grant that.
Now, how many churches are tax-exempt for many of their activities? How much revenue does the state lose, and consequently how much more does it cost society in general to make up the shortage that the church money would provide the state were the church counted as a regular business? I have no hard data on this, but I’d bet dollars to doughnuts the money “lost” from church revenue is much greater than the money spent that would not have to be if everyone wore seat belts and motorcycle helmets.
But, you say, religion is dealing with a personal freedom, and while, in certain way of looking at it, that may cost society some money they could receive otherwise, the personal freedoms of the individual is more important. I agree. However, while I do not rank the relative importance of religion and safety gear, I do think it is important to let people have personal freedom when they are not hurting or endangering other people. A drunk driver is endangering other people. A pedophile is certainly endangering other people. But a guy in a car without a seat belt, or a girl on a Harley without a helmet is no more endangering someone else than the local church is; in fact if anything.. (insert your own joke here).
Therefore, in the final analysis, while I would not dispute that seat belts and motorcycle helmets save lives, and are a good idea, personal freedom should win the day, seeing as we live in an ostensibly free country. It may seem like a stretch to equate loss of headgear freedom with loss of religious freedom, but loss of freedom in general is always a Slippery Slope and in
Until Bill Clinton takes over as host on “Focus on the Family”,
Hyperion
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