The ANTIsocial INjustice of the Left
A Blindness in the
Body of the Church?

Political Correctness is the peer pressure enforcement arm of Secular Humanism. Under the guise of safety and the protection of the more vulnerable, a platitude has been emphasized in society’s daily life – the supremacy of the pedestrian. You might object that this has always been so. But not long ago grandparents and parents stressed a primary message of childhood to their grandchildren and children, "Look both ways before crossing the street." That message has virtually gone by the wayside within a Biblical generation. Motorized vehicles are without doubt a relatively recent introduction, and they increased the necessity for such parental admonishment in order to assure that their progeny survived to adulthood. But the wisdom behind it predates streets and roadways to pathways occupied with cartage and beasts of burden. We can venture to say that prudence itself enforces the idea that bigger things can deprive you of life if one inadvertently collides with them.

Just as important as the advice being withheld from offspring, it has been embraced and implemented by oldsters with an actual flaunting of pedestrian "authority." It has been adopted and put into practice by people old enough to remember a deference to cars. It has been put into practice by virtually everyone regardless of his or her political leanings or religious affiliation.

In daily life of our First World, the motor vehicle is the default - the norm - and great capital expenditure upon it is not surprising, it having enabled our efficient conduct of commerce. Codes are extensive for roadway construction and the use thereof. Therefore demarcations favoring that expediency are not unwarranted.

Enter the re-norming of those who consider mankind a blight to the planet earth. What do carbon emissions, the "equality" of animals and the fragility of the earth’s ecosystems have to do with pedestrian supremacy? The tacit understanding is that a more "civilized" (secular) human being is morally above confrontations with mere machines, the inventions of robber barons. Manipulators fuel underlying class struggle. A defiant strut has become the new norm for people crossing stretches of concrete that are built for cars – streets, highways and parking lots. The walk is done without regard for crosswalks or traffic lights. The walk is done with expectancy for passage as if the walker was in the safety of his/her living room.

What of sidewalks built at expense of homeowners and required by law in some cases? They are not necessary or mandated for pedestrian use. Pedestrians instead demand use of the roadway from cars... and get it. What of specifically erected and marked crosswalks in the middle of blocks emblazoned with state law signage protecting pedestrians? Better not dare to encroach on those safety zones. But even when those dedicated holy trails are present, any other portion of the roadway is equally sacrosanct and must be yielded to the whim of errant crossers. No consequence is ever demanded of them because the "archaic" term has been erased from all PC dictionaries – jaywalking. (Jaywalking according to wiki is – of course – something Jay Leno did).

I am in no way advocating reckless endangerment of pedestrians by assault with a deadly vehicular weapon. But the inordinate carte blanche afforded to those walking, especially when they flagrantly ignore measures for their own safety is filled with hypocrisy. Consider this. Minus the safety consideration: A deference to human beings over human beings in cars is in and of itself an injustice. Once a human being parks the car, he/she in turn perpetuates the tyranny on those driving incoming vehicles.

Illustrations abound even in the confines of church parking lots. Did The Golden Rule (the corollary of Christ’s second greatest commandment) undergo Post-Modern modification? Our own church entrance is within yards of the parking lot entrance. Every Sunday, without regard for traffic piling up on the busy roadway that passes the church, pedestrians routinely trickle in front of cars which are lined up not daring to take their turns to ingress the lot. The "entitlement strut" takes no heed of fellow strutters, the timing or length of their passage. Pedestrians perceive an indult to strut for as long as it takes – no matter how many strutters are strung out in front of waiting traffic. Another platitude/lesson of childhood went out the window with "Look Both Ways." The Entitlement-minded have changed "Take Turns" to "TAKE EVERYTHING... Let’s OCCUPY the path of modern civilization… I’m the 99%... Everyone ELSE is a 1% suspect." (Did I forget to mention that logic also went out the window?)

You may think I am exaggerating by saying that parents are specifically teaching their children that it is not necessary to look both ways before stepping out in the habitat of motor vehicles. I know of a day care with entrance logistics similar to the church parking lot just described. The very young obviously do not traverse the lot unaccompanied. They hold a parental hand. A marked, raised crosswalk (per the public roadway variety) exists between the entrance and parking-lot-proper on this private property. I have yet to see an adult look both ways him/herself to model safety, let alone instruct the child to do so. The very young lack the ability to discern the subtle nuance of this specialized crosswalk. And even if they did, prudence dictates that adults prepare them for the fact that scofflaws exist in society and safety zones are not 100% safe.

One would think with the elevation of the pedestrian to such a pedestal that the environment for the most vulnerable - the blind - would be at an unprecedented level of safety. There’s the irony! Several factors make it not so. The recognition of a white cane among youth in our culture is inversely proportional, it seems, to the heightened awareness of the pedestrian. One might think that fact a non-issue since sensitivity to pedestrians in general has increased. If pedestrians can walk out in traffic at will, why not the blind? The blind are naturally (and trained to be) cautious and tentative. A side-glance toward - or a nonchalant assessment of - intent of the people surrounding one is not available to the blind. In our image-conscious world one must strut decisively to be respected and thus attain the yield. I did not teach my blind daughter recklessness because that is not the prudent execution of Orientation and Mobility. In any case I would not attempt to endow any child of mine with arrogance. Strutting does not mesh with my understanding of Christian sensibilities. Not surprisingly, a backlash toward the demanding pedestrian exists, and that resentment is most likely to manifest itself at the expense of the non-assertive.

A local market parking lot is an especially instructive example of anarchic congestion. Space is at a premium and there are no specific provisions for foot traffic. It is the perfect storm for the exultation of pedestrian supremacy! Narrow parking spaces, curved internal roadways and inadequate line-of-sight to enable easy egress of parking aisles all compound the wait-time for drivers even if the pedestrians were not in the equation. When people are in their vehicles a semblance of driving etiquette eventually rescues the waiting driver. But when pedestrians swarm, all bets are off because pedestrians, according to PC indoctrination, MUST exercise their "right" to not only go first, but to ignore your existence. A human being in a car could die of old age waiting for an opening, but the model-runway pedestrian couldn’t care less. What makes this the most insane of scenarios is that every pedestrian in this story likely got there via a car and must leave in one. There’s a line in the film Titanic where the Billy Zane character utters prophetically, (paraphrased) "We better hurry, order is starting to break down." That sinking disaster is a microcosm. Aside from the added irony of that particular character speaking the line, there could be no better assessment of our present spiraling decline due to the rejection of logic and true compassion in social situations.