Bring Back "Stop Look and Listen"

Almost every day you can read online about a pedestrian somewhere being hit by a car.  Today's offering is an eight year old boy.  The police are not releasing information yet, the driver was neither arrested nor ticketed so, I'm willing to bet that the boy didn't stop, look and listen.

The "pedestrian has the right of way" law is costing lives as more and more people are being stupefied into blindly walking into moving traffic.  I was walking with a friend and as we approached the curb she neither stopped nor looked.  She just stepped off of the curb and I grabbed her as cars from both directions were giving no indication of stopping.

If you watch people coming out of grocery stores or places such as WalMart, most of those people are not looking either.  They just walk out with blind faith that the world will stop for them.  The law does force drivers to be more cognizant of pedestrians since all the blame will be on the driver and their insurance company but it is also making pedestrians oblivious to the danger of 4,000 pounds of steel coming at them at thirty or fifty miles per hour.  Regardless of the law, my money is on the 4,000 pounds of steel.

Just because the pedestrian has the right of way does not mean that the driver is not eating fast food, putting on makeup, on the phone, fiddling with the radio, setting the GPS or nodding off.  We can make laws against those (Schumer, get on it) or we can give pedestrians a foolproof way to not get hit by cars: Stop, Look and Listen.  It works every time.  Go to your local highway and try it. 

Maybe we should take all the politicians who voted for that law to a busy highway and see which method they choose to cross the street.  Our eight year old little boy didn't get that choice because he somehow learned that cars will always stop for him.  Always.

When I was a kid there was a deluge of commercials on TV on the topic of Stop, Look and Listen.  Yielding to a car will keep you alive 100% of the time.  Stepping in front of one, not so much.  I think I'd rather be alive than to brainwashed into thinking I have super human powers to stop traffic.

Maybe if politicians created harsher punishments for drivers who hit human lemmings -  yes, that will save lives -  But, really, we don't need more laws, we need one less law.  Rescind the pedestrian right of way law.   If we have to keep it so we can place the blame, at least couple it with the admonishment to stop, look and listen, too.

Facebook Stalking

Senator Chuck Schumer is at it again.  Whenever something happens in the world somehow Mr. Schumer will find a way to propose a law about it.  For instance, last month when a Malaysia Airline was shot down over the Ukraine, Schumer suggested that we equip our commercial airlines with anti-missile defenses so that an event like that doesn't happen here.   Remember when Avonte Oquendo, the boy with autism whose remains were found  after he disappeared at age 14 from his school in October?  Senator Schumer proposed “Avonte’s Law,” which would place electronic tracking devices to be worn by children with autism.  My sister raised an autistic child and never lost her once.  That was just good parenting.  My own mom had a lucrative career building bombs while working at the arsenal.  When she had her first child she quit to become a stay at home mom.  We may not have had two cars and steak for dinner every night but no new legislation was required for my mom to raise four kids.

This weeks Schumerian target are those ubiquitous wristband fitness devices.  There are dozens of them on the market and Senator Schumer has targeted Fitbit.  He claims that these wrist pedometers are a  "privacy nightmare" and that they collect personal information on your health, sleep, and location - information which should be just that – personal.  Without doing his research, Schumer opined that Fitbit will sell your personal information.  Fitbit responded with;  "Fitbit does not sell user data. Our privacy policy prevents us from doing this. We are committed to our users' privacy and welcome the opportunity to work with Senator Schumer on this important issue."  Alas, it is too late for Fitbit.  Just google "privacy nightmare."  I wonder why Schumer didn't target other giants of the industry such as Nike or Garmin. 

Most users of these fitness devices eagerly and willingly register these tools and freely upload their information for the world to see.  Personally, I would register the device under a fake name for I don't want the world to see how lazy I am.  Actually, I am not lazy but as a piano player, I spend much of my time sitting lifelessly at either the piano or computer.  I also spend an enormous amount of time practicing away from the piano either on my sofa or in a deck chair by the pool.  You may think that I'm napping but in reality I am working very studiously at composing, memorization and improvising.

If Mr. Schumer is truly concerned about our privacy, especially the personal information many of us freely post about ourselves, maybe he should look into Facebook.

When I was a kid I had a neighbor who was always looking out her window watching us kids play.  I would look over to her house to see the curtains rustle as she hid from view.  In college, every kid in the dorm practiced the art of voyeurism.  A friend of mine admitted that she was always watching the man next door and it bothered her conscience when she was caught lustily watching him. 

If we knew someone was stalking us and gathering information on us, it would certainly creep us out.  Our personal information is none of their business.  So how come we are accepting of people using Facebook to cyberstalk us?  The answer is simple; we do it to other people ourselves. 

Facebook serves as a covert method of investigation and discovering a wealth of information about people we don't actually know.  Every time we meet someone new, one of the first things we will do is look them up on Facebook in order to learn everything about them and even "friend" them to get more.  We want to know who their parents and siblings are, what they have been up to lately, where they live, where they vacation, who their friends are, where they work, how old they are, who they are they dating, status updates, photo uploads, photo tags, photo comments, wall posts, friend additions, group memberships, attended events, mutual friends, where they may have commented and what they "like."  Facebook doesn't have the physical elements of being stalked in the real world, such as being followed or watched but the ulterior motive is just the same and just as real. 

Online stalking may also consist of people communicating with you in ways that unsettle you (whether purposefully intended or unknowingly), especially with respect to suggesting or implying that they're watching and noting your every comment and update.  Peter Baterip was accused of stalking an ex girlfriend and contacting her on Facebook using a fake identity over the course of 18 months.  There have been numerous stories of teens (and adults posing as teens) who bully and harass people to the point of the victims even completing suicide in some cases.  Many employers take to Facebook to gather information about their employees.  One local man was fired from his job when he called in sick but later posted a selfie of himself at a baseball game on Facebook.  His boss was one of his "friends."  There was a Roman Catholic priest in TX who was accused of Facebook stalking.  There was nothing wrong with that except all his stalkees were teenage boys in his parish.  Without committing a crime, he was removed from active ministry. 

Facebook stalking, like regular stalking, allows the stalker to secretly gather information about the person they are interested in.  Facebook stalking is less likely to have an illegal component and is generally accepted by it's voyeuristic victims.  The argument being, that if you didn't want others to know about your life, you wouldn't post it all over the internet.   But, the real reason is that - we all do it and don't feel we are being voyeuristic about it.  That's actually called denial.  Maybe we are not willing to look into the abyss because we are afraid what will be staring back at us.   I don't know, does the shoe fit?

Have you ever searched Facebook for someone you dated like fifteen years ago?  Have you ever searched Facebook for high school friends to see who aged better, or who has the better job, who went bald, who got fat or who married whom?  Stalking has become a perfectly normal activity.   So you searched an ex-lover or new acquaintance on Facebook, who cares?  If a neighbor watches you out his window or takes a photo of you, why is that different or worse? 

Does Schumer know about Facebook stalking?  Sure he does but no one will ever do anything about it because we all do it, so that makes it okay.  After it was discovered that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was the Boston Bomber, his Facebook page received  millions of hits within hours before it was taken down.  But, not before people took snapshots of his pages and downloaded all the data.  Nothing creepy about that.  Do you want to see his pages?  Sure you do.  Just go to Google Images and search "Dzhokhar Tsarnaev facebook page."  Want to see who his friends are?  Sure you do.  Want to see him shirtless?  Sure you do.  Nothing creepy here because, *you* are doing it and not some creepy person or organization you don't know, such as Fitbit.   Unlike Fitbit, I wonder if Facebook sells your personal information . . . ?  Does Schumer know about this?

PS, if you are lonely or bored, turn off Facebook and go outside to meet real people.  A high-five is much healthier than a poke.  A real friend is much more healthier than a "friend."  

Why the Pedestrian Right of Way Law is Dangerous

On January 19, at nine p.m., four girls were crossing a busy four lane intersection in the city of Troy, NY.  They were between the ages of ten and thirteen.   Since state law and parents teach their children that they have the right of way, children often exercise their right to step into of traffic and expect it to stop.  It's the law. 

In this case, the traffic light turned green, the crossing sign blinked "Don't Walk," and still, the girls stepped into the crosswalk.  There were three cars in the right lane and the first driver who had the green light stopped for the girls to cross the street, again, despite the crossing sign blinking "Don't Walk." 

The third car in line saw that the light was green and his lane wasn't moving so he turned into the left lane and continued.  Just as he approached the crosswalk the first girl emerged from in front of the stopped car and the she was hit.  She is fine, a little banged up, but not seriously injured.  The driver was ticketed for failing to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk.

I was raised in an age where we were taught to stop, look and listen, then look again and continue to look both ways while crossing.  I don't quite understand the logic of a slow moving flesh and blood pedestrian having the right of way over two tons of steel and velocity.  Even today I have no desire to take up the practice of challenging a 4,000 pound vehicle against my unprotected body.   Even if a driver of a vehicle slows down, I wave them by because that driver may recognize my authority over him but that doesn't guarantee other drivers, as in this case, are cognizant of my ability to part a sea of vehicles in my path. 

When I was a teen on a bike, I witnessed a pedestrian stepping onto a street forcing a car to come to a stop.  As she approached the other lane, a car across the street was pulling out of a side street and he was looking to his left for oncoming traffic.  There was none coming and no need to look to the right since it was his lane he was turning onto.  As he pulled onto the street and looked to the right, it was too late.  Compound leg fractures ensued.   The car was fine. 

I walk at about 2.5 miles per hour and a car can be going about 30 miles per hour on the average city street (c'mon, who are we kidding - 40).   At my pace I can stop in about a foot.  A car may take several feet to stop.  If someone steps in front of a car, several feet may not be enough.  The law may be on the side of the pedestrian but the laws of physics is not. 

Residents of the community are very upset about this recent hit and are demanding that the city do something to make this busy vehicular intersection more safe, at taxpayer expense.  Good parenting is free.

No pedestrian should suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk in the path of a moving vehicle which constitutes an immediate hazard.  You may disagree but I think that that is just insane regardless what the law says. So parents, decide what you teach your children:  Stop, look and listen or, stop traffic.   BTW, where is your ten year old at nine p.m.?