OVERBOARD WITH SAFETY

During several pleasurable trips of taking babies for a ride in a stroller, I began to think about our infatuation with safety.

The babies were first strapped into a carrier, a rock hard plastic shell, and only then placed in a stroller. NASCAR power would not be used to propel this vehicle down the sidewalk, rather just one old fart, who would attain a record shattering speed of 3 mph.
Covers for electric outlets, bumpers for furniture, helmets, pads for every part of the body. May be that's why lately, teenagers have been doing stupid and reckless things, since they never had a chance to learn of what may be dangerous to life and limb.

Diving boards have disappeared from swimming pools, and the pool will soon follow as hotels have replaced them with knee depth wading pools, or no pool at all. Fun taken away, for safety's sake.

Vehicles with seat belts, airbags, and other safety devices, yet the death toll from traffic accidents remains constant. Could it be that we are loured into thinking we are so safe, that we drive more reckless.

How many things have been banned or eliminated just because someone was hurt, and in a lot of cases it was pure stupidity that caused it? Thinking and being careful are becoming passe, with all the rules and regulations.

Even wars are started under the guise it's for our safety. No one sits down and says, lets think this over, and is this war really necessary?

If you hit someone with malice intent, the charge was battery. Then we had to have special laws if the victim was a policeman or fireman. Women, gays, blacks, and seniors had to have their own law. Why is one group more important then the next?

All this money spent on safety products, bans and laws, and yet we are no safer.