When I walk down to my local post office I usually pick up litter along the way to dispose of it properly later. Today I was trying to cross the road at a designated pedestrian crossing – you know, the kind with a day-glow florescent bollard in the middle of the road and a sign that says ‘State Law: Cars Must Stop For Pedestrians’. The cars didn’t stop, no, not even the police cruiser, and one vehicle came so close it knocked the bag of litter I had collected out of my hands.
So this was not good news. Actually it’s very bad news if you happen to be a human being and not a 2000lb hunk of metal with a semi-comatose driver. It’s even worse news if, like the lady beside me, waiting patiently, you happen to be over 80 and a bit less agile than you once were.
So I began to wonder about this. Perhaps a paintball gun would be useful. That way I could use it to ‘tag’ all these dangerous drivers – would be killers every one – so other pedestrians could be wary. I imagine I’d get away with it for a while and then be arrested, charged with assault with a colorful weapon, and probably exiled to Alcatraz forever. Yet if someone assaults me with a deadly weapon (such as a car) I am, in law, allowed to defend myself with deadly force – such as a real gun. This much more vicious and dangerous response would, therefore, be legal, whereas at the moment I can’t even lob a rotten tomato at those who would deprive me of life, as well as of liberty and the pursuit of, well, everything else.
Gandhi would have known what to do. Any suggestions?
I am in the same boat, but not nearly as bad it sounds. If there is a solution, i want to know also, i can't think of one, since the law is already there, what else is there? Maybe charging people who actually kill pedestrians in sidewalks with first degree murder, but even that might not help, the force of ignorance here is powered by the auto, and that is a very powerful force for ignorance, people get lobotomized when they get behind the wheel of their deadly weapon.
dear dr. allan,
You should take a trip to kolkata sometime.
i had almost same experience a couple of years back, i was crossing the street, there was a bus too far away and when the driver saw that i was almost midway he pounced on the accelerator, and i had to jump to get away from being crushed, good that other drivers were careful. that day, i also thought what would have happened if i was not physically fit.
in kolkata there is no such system (of crossing) in most of the roads, people just cross when the vehicles are far away, and drivers play this prank.
Wish you love, peace and happiness.
Trisha
Dear Trisha,
That is indeed a sobering comment! Perhaps the only thing to do is, as you say, to try not to let the idiocy of others become a burden that invades our thoughts. I wonder if there's a difference between the dangerous 'game' your kolkata drivers play and the blithe failure to notice anything that I encountered in my US drivers? In each case the driver feels invulnerable, and somehow above any real accountability. And that sort of arrogance is what I find disturbing.
Peace and love, and thank you for your wisdom,
Allan
Dear Samuel,
Thank you so much for your comment and your wisdom. It's that whole business of drivers not being 'present' that disturbs me. Drivers who spend several hours a day in this sort of semi-coma are hardly doing themselves any favors, especially if one of our tasks as human beings is to 'be here now'.
Peace, Allan