It's time for a random post about crossing guards. Or more accurately, the people in the neon jackets who hang out in intersections to direct traffic because apparently the same people too dumb to realize what a red light means will figure out what a person gesticulating in a neon jacket means.
What kind of insane faithlessness in humanity coupled with a power trip is necessary to don the neon jacket of power, get out in the middle of a busy intersection filled with angry motorists, and boss them around?
How many of these deluded souls get run over every year?
And, and this is a question I ask myself every time I get tailgated while already going more than 10 miles over the speed limit, how badly do we need more of them? Or would we be better served if they urged the motorists to run over the idiot who starts across the crosswalk with two seconds left on the clock?
Because, man, those people should get everything that's coming to them.
What I'd like is a world without rules. I believe there's some superhighway somewhere in Europe which is dangerous as hell, and they've removed all the safety signs - or was it an intersection? All the stoplights at a dangerous intersection, maybe that was it. The accident rate dramatically declined. I propose we do something similar. Rip out all the stoplights and fire all the crossing-guards - oh wait, it's a depression, we can't be seen to fire anyone.
But I think it would still send the right message. In real life, that crossing-guard is at most 200 pounds of flesh and bone, and that car could mutilate them beyond recognition if it so chose to ignore the feeble authority of a raised hand.
I am not advocating violence. I do not advocate violence as a general rule. But I want you to step back and think about the illusion of safety that these crossing-guards and stoplights generate.
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