Command Post

Update: Blogger is back up over here--I added the link to the article in question.

Trying to rise to Timshel's challenge, I had filed this away, thinking I'd get around to posting about it sooner or later. Actually, Mikhail Capone got to it first. Called Pedestrian Paradise, Jay Walljasper of Utne Reader presents the anti-Hummer point of view--one incidently, shared by a lot of people, including my dad, who is as conservative as they come.

Making the streets, once the arteries of urban life, the exclusive domain of cars and trucks, has contributed in its own way to the increasing alienation of city life. Consequently, some have decided to take back the streets, as it were, petitioning for "traffic calming" measures to be implemented, requesting that alternatives like bike and walking paths be built (here in Baton Rouge, sidewalks would be nice--there are SOME, but by no means is a sidewalk considered an essential amenity), etc. etc. It's an attempt to restore urban life to something more...urban.

The Alternet article is a little long--and I'm a little too busy here to give a real good summary--but check it out. Progressive politics begins with a number of things, one of which is a realization that, while cars aren't going away any time soon, there's no reason why we have to worship at the altar of Ford, GM, Chrysler, or the Asian and Euro versions. Besides, walking is great exercise for both body and mind.

Alas, I've gotta close the request line. Back to justifying my existence.