Your friend Jim George thinks you'd be a great addition to Ricochet, so we'd like to offer you a special deal: You can become a member for no initial charge for one month!
Ricochet is a community of like-minded people who enjoy writing about and discussing politics (usually of the center-right nature), culture, sports, history, and just about every other topic under the sun in a fully moderated environment. We’re so sure you’ll like Ricochet, we’ll let you join and get your first month for free. Kick the tires: read the always eclectic member feed, write some posts, join discussions, participate in a live chat or two, and listen to a few of our over 50 (free) podcasts on every conceivable topic, hosted by some of the biggest names on the right, for 30 days on us. We’re confident you’re gonna love it.
In strange times, what was once commonplace now seems bizarre. I was walking the dogs earlier this week and a couple of kids on bikes in a nearby park stuck with me. I watched as the boy and girl – probably around 11- or 12-years-old rode their bikes through the grass and down a slope steep enough that in winter makes for a black-diamond sledding hill. Neither child wore helmets nor shoes. The girl’s long, golden hair carried by the breeze was the last I saw as the pair peddled furiously out of view. I looked around. No parents. No nanny. No park overseer waiting to scold them for enjoying a sunny afternoon with such reckless abandon. I smiled at the thought that even in this time of modified police state, there were these two kids unaware of the cynical, fearful world beyond the park. Then it made me sad. I wasn’t mournful in a sense of lost nostalgia, but I realized these kids were an endangered species. And if the government had its way, they would be extinct.
Excellent post!
Highlighted this, because death is a part of life. The only to way to avoid it is – not live.
I was struck by this very same passage and thought the new standard of governance to be: obedience to our rulers. Death is not avoidable.
Benjamin Franklin, still right after 244+ years!
Taking basic precautions (like wearing a helmet when cycling) needn’t be about living in fear or trying to avoid all risk; it can — and should — be about ensuring that our choices and activities don’t needlessly result in horror and loss. One of the few mercies of my father’s accident was that we never once had to be mad at him for wasting his life; we knew he wore a helmet from the first moment we heard of the accident and that his injuries weren’t preventable. Other families in the trauma center and nursing home did not have that solace.
Kids should ride their bikes, swim out to lake islands, and learn that risk-taking is part of living an active, engaged life. They should also learn that we all have responsibilities to ourselves and those we love to not be reckless with our lives and health.
I think this post is more about who makes the decisions that you note prevent needless loss. Who is controlling.
Welcome to the American gulag – your own home is your prison cell. Fortunately, not for all. For those unfortunate folks still under house arrest, there are these things called elections, and these groups called political parties. Adjust your votes accordingly.
Let’s hope the Space X flight goes well and inspires us to get back out there. Those two astronauts are taking a big risk, but then again, all astronauts do.
I would say that Westerners are selfish and don’t want to be burdened with children. When I was growing up, two children was a small family. Most had three or four or five children. Then the Pill. And then abortion. And over my adult life, I have seen that people my age, surprisingly to me, have two children, a boy and a girl, and three, if that’s what it takes to have a boy and a girl. But beyond that, it’s rare to see a family of four children. At least in the 20th century’s affluent countries.
The first commandment recorded in the Bible is: Go forth and multiply. And sex is a seemingly insuperable urge with in humanity, as if the command to multiply had created this urge. But why? Perhaps God knew that, given their druthers, humans would simply choose not to have children.
And that’s what we see in the West today. In fact we see it mandated in China. And we see the Malthusian forces working to limit procreation and to reduce the population (Bill Gates notwithstanding).
JennaStocker:
Grand Slam Home Run! Let nothing be added to what you said. Let nothing be taken away. Well done!