Big Brother / little quadraplegics
As a Libertarian, an obnoxious strident one at that, I abhor and fight against government intervention in our personal lives, and especially in our parenting.
On the other hand, I understand and share the motivation for those who would pass such laws. Having worked trauma rooms for nearly all my adult life, I have seen dozens, truly dozens, of young scrawny necks snapped and lives irrevocably changed from quadraplegia caused by the roll-over of ATV's. It's not as bad now as it was in the '80's with the 3-Wheelers, but it is shocking how common this injury is... in San Diego during the winter when Glamis and the dunes are swarming, it is truly a rare weekend that passes in the ED without Life Flight bringing in one of these sad sad cases. Big heads with big leveraging helmets on them and little pencil necks without much muscle mean that even a very low speed rollover can leave them in a chair for life.
So while I don't want Big Brother telling y'all you have to, I BEG those of you with kids to teach them well, watch them closely, hope that they're not the reckless idiot I was at that age, and if you're so inclined a little prayer couldn't hurt either.
I know, the point of this post was to inspire the Big Brother vs. Bikers battle, not to get a lecture from the V4 loser jerk on safe riding and parenting, this is irrelevant, obnoxious, idiotic etc.
So flame me, ridicule me, tell me you'd like to stick a V4 up my Honda-loving backside with a Duc boot; tell me not to tell you how to raise your kids, tell me it could never happen to you or yours, I don't care.
I'll say it again.
Teach them well, and watch them like a mama hawk, I don't want to meet them in my Trauma Room.