Lee Dresselhaus / L’Observateur / June 23, 1999

So. I see that motorcycle helmet laws stand a good chance of beingrepealed, or at least modified, so that anyone over the age of 18 can choose whether or not to risk getting his or her brains bashed out on the highway. Well, good. It’s about time a little common sense squeaked itsway through our legislature.

I’ve always had a hard time understanding helmet laws. Now, don’t get mewrong. Anyone who rides a motorcycle without one is foolish and isrisking death or begging to wear a diaper for the rest of their lives. Butthe plain fact is, that’s their choice. I’ve never understood why thegovernment had the right to step in and dictate just how safe I have to be, and the helmet law thing is just one example of this issue.

The whole thing comes down to a matter of being able to choose. I don”tsee the government saying we can’t participate in high risk sports like skydiving. Or riding a 2,000-pound angry bull that wants to throw you offand turn you into Jell-O. Or bungee jumping (which is absolutely thestupidest thing anyone could ever do). They’ll let people who’ve never doneit before tie a rubber band around their ankles and plunge headfirst off of a tower or a bridge, but they won’t let an experienced motorcycle rider take their Honda or Harley to the store without a helmet. Again, myargument is simple: If you can choose to ride a bull or jump out of a plane or off of a bridge, how come you can”t choose to ride without a helmet? I can pay my entry fee at any rodeo and, never having done it before in my life, I can climb on the above mentioned bull whose sole intent and purpose is to crush me like a bug. But I gotta have a helmet on before I cantake my moped out on the street. Sheesh. Of course, I’d only do the bullriding thing or the bungee-jumping thing at gunpoint, and jumping out of a plane is way far out of the question, but you get the point I’m making.

One of the problems with laws like this is the fact that people who write and endorse those laws seldom write or endorse laws that directly affect them. When the original helmet law was voted in you could bet thatwhoever put it together didn”t own a motorcycle.

Another problem is the fact that nowadays we have a federal government that snoops around our lives like a nosy Gladys Kravitz on speed. Only thisGladys Kravitz isn’t just a crazy neighbor. This one has the power of thepurse strings. They peer into the windows of our everyday existence andwhen they see something they don’t like they tell the states to change the law or they’ll withhold highway funds, education money, engineering projects, etc, etc. This economic blackmail is how they get around theissue of state’s rights and get their way on just about anything they want.

Like interstate speed limits, the 21-year-old drinking ages, and the DWI blood alcohol limit (which they are now pushing to lower). And I believethat the helmet laws were an issue with them as well.

Slowly but surely we are losing our right to choose. I know this is going tobe a controversial thing to say but I think it even extends to the seatbelt laws. I can understand the government dictating that children should berestrained in a car, but I’m not sure just where they got the right to dictate that adults must be buckled up in their own vehicle. Again, if youdon’t wear a seatbelt you’re an idiot, but somehow it just seems like that should be my choice, not that of some bureaucrat with ties to the insurance industry and their accompanying lobbyists. Don’t misunderstand.I wear mine. As ugly as this face is, it could be worse. I like it withoutwindshield marks and I’m fond of my teeth.

Also, I heard the remark made that 18 is not a good age for the helmet law to be lowered to. Too young, they said. Why? At 18, you can vote, getmarried, pay taxes, be arrested as an adult, and fight for your country. Ifyou can’t make a rational decision by then – and be willing to accept the repercussions if that decision is the wrong one – you’re diluting the gene pool anyway and nature should take its course. The 18-year-old cutoffpoint applies to the drinking age, too. You’d think that if they’re old enoughto wear the uniform of the country and die in combat, as well as meet all the other adult criteria I just listed, they would be old enough to buy a beer. Gladys strikes again. In fact, Gladys has her snoopy little paw printsall over that one in this state, but that’s a subject for another column.

Anyway, congratulations to our lawmakers for restoring a small but significant right to us. The right to choose. I’m glad to see it. And, by the way, I don’t even own a motorcycle. Ain’t that something?

Lee Dresselhaus is a regular columnist for L”Observateur.

Copyright © 1998, Wick Communications, Inc.

Internet services provided by NeoSoft.

Best viewed with 3.0 or higher