MnSpring wrote on 06/22/14 at 15:51:37:mpescatori wrote on 06/22/14 at 14:15:20:
Don't insult my intelligence !
I don't need a helmet !
I'm smarter than you folks and a LOT better driver/rider !
No helmet, right ? Civil liberties and all that... yuh, right...
Mpescatori.
I believe you completely missed the point.
This is not about,
"to, or not to", wear a helmet.
Their are other places to state your view about that one way or another.
This is about the,
FREEDOM, to CHOOSE.
Personally I wear a helmet, and leather.
(And most probably always will)
That, is MY Choice! NOT Yours !
Do Not Tell Me, I, HAVE to.I have Fire Extinguishers in the house and sheds.
(MY Choice, not yours)
I Have a gun. (MY Choice, not yours)
I drive defensively, MC or Cage. (MY Choice, not yours)
Etc, Etc, Etc. ...
It is a
FREEDOM or CHOICE.
If someone 'chose' badly, and suffered a horrific accident.
Well then sorry.
But it just cleaned up the gene pool!
Wait.
No Where,
absolutely NO where, does the, 'government' who issues Driving Licenses,
say:
"You Have to drive with your Eyes Open".So, If I ever get in a accident, Can I SUE the Government,
because, because I say,
"I had my eyes closed".
And the Government who issued me a License,
did so, without EVER saying:
"You Must drive with your eyes open".
LOL
Gee how far do you think that will go ?
I see you are from Italy.
What does,
Freedom, mean in Italy?
Hello MNSpring, whoever you are...
Allow me to reply to your post:
Your "
Freedom to choose" stop exactly where your "
The Freedom not to be hurt" starts.
Do you wear shoes when you go out? Really? Why?
I see no prickly thorn bushes littering your streets... what's the point of wasting good money on shoes? Foot protection, maybe ?
No gov't law forcing you to wear shoes.. so why make such a fuss on "Liberty" when there is a law expecting you to wear "head protection" ?
Let me tell you why: because passing a law and enforcing it will cost YOU, the TAXPAYER, less money than it would to pay for YOUR rehabilitation just in case you were to become a vegetable on wheels...
...and I don't care what you think of yourself, how high your self-esteem, the day a drunk/high driver slams into you, you might well think "well, there goes my head..."
...not to mention the uninsured lil'ol'lady from across the street...
At the "ripe old age" of 54, I have been hit enough times and have banged my head more than enough... and regularly got up and slipped off my helmet and told off the other driver...
...not once was I hospitalized - although I did hit my head against the kerb or the pavement every single time.
What does this tell me?
Ancient adage "Experience is the sum of all the times things went wrong and you learned a lesson"
My lessond learned is that you need a helmet just as much as you need shoes for walking.
May I quote from your post:
Quote:No Where, absolutely NO where,
does the, 'government' who issues Driving Licenses,
say: "You Have to drive with your Eyes Open".
So, If I ever get in a accident, Can I SUE the Government,
because, because I say, "I had my eyes closed".
And the Government who issued me a License,
did so, without EVER saying:
"You Must drive with your eyes open".
"
Nobody can pass a law saying I must drive with my eyes open"
Yes, they can.
It's the Neurology Ward from your local hospital.
They have nice quiet rooms for you to rest and nice friendly staff with elegant white frocks...
You can talk to the voices in your head for as long as you wish.
Eyes open, eyes closed, Homer Simpson style too...
I dare any Forum member to claim they are perfectly at ease with a lunatic claiming it is his constitutional right to drive through the neighborhood with their eyes closed.
What about the children's safety ???
Jeez... it is my constitutional right to pepper spray that driver, right? After all, what could you care, your eyes are shut, right ?
Last, my comment on your very poor rhetorical question "
What does, Freedom, mean in Italy?"
Let me tell you what
Freedom really means.
Freedom means my son can go out and enjoy a pizza with his friends downtown and
be safely back at midnight, on public transport, without the fear of being robbed at knifepoint.
(Last night)
Freedom means my wife can do her rounds (she's a family physician) after dark in the winter (that means after 5p.m.)
without the fear of being beaten and raped.
Freedom means I can go out to the movies downtown with my family, have a burger at the Hard Rock Cafe and walk back to the car
without the fear of meeting the local neighborhood gang (there isn't one)
and without the fear of finding my car stolen or even the window smashed.
Freedom means I have no fear for that odd noise coming from the living room at 3 a.m., because burglary rates and petty crime in Italy are eons better than in the US.
Freedom means
we do not have road rage drive-by shootings.
Freedom means
I can go to my doctor or to hospital for treatment regardless of my social position or how well I earn, because the Constitution says I am entitled to good health and proper medical treatment.
Freedom means
I do not have to sport a foreign flag when I go out to a foreign Country as a tourist, Italy has not started a war since 1939...
...nor do we support puppet governments which are sooo popular with the locals.
I do not have to "pretend I'm somebody else" and ... nobody hates the "Italian infidel".
Freedom means that
WE are not afraid of ourselves because our military missions overseas open schools and hospitals, not jailhouses.
We don't create problems, we solve them.
We don't harrass the local population, we help them.
OUR flag is synonimous to "safe haven".
We don't need private contractors to do the dirty work.
Freedom means that when
our veterans return home they are
NOT in fear of losing their job, because we don't fire our veterans, we make the most of them as veterans training the younger soldiers.
Italy boasts among the lowest casualty rates in Afghanistan, in Somalia, and in Iraq, as long as we were there.
Certainly not because we are in "low intensity" areas, but because we evidently have good negotiation skills and [b]we keep our word.
Any time you wish to come and visit, do not worry with your personal safety.
You are safer here, walking the streets at night, than you are in broad daylight walking the halls of your local high school.
Your call.