My comment in WSJ magazine in response to an article about the Fiat 500 C, a small car that may be coming to the U.S.
I hope none of these people complaining about the safety of a small car are also people who quote Benjamin Franklin, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” A small, economical car can give people a whole lot of liberty.
Here are some zingers that I posted for Lenore Skenazy to use. She asked for some for her ammo bag to be used on occasions when people say, “But even if we save ONE LIFE isn’t it worth it?”
I blame the Iraq war on Bush’s pandering to people who had a pathological obsession with safety.
If we raise our kids to put safety above all else, we’ll raise a generation that wants to drive big SUVs and Hummers for safety’s sake, which will mean more carbon in the atmosphere and more young soldiers coming home from the oil wars in body bags.
If we raise our kids to put their personal safety above all else, we’ll raise a generation that will be silent when the Jews are sent to the gas chambers. It will be a generation that will stay home when people in the south are marching for their civil rights, or when their grandparents are sent to meet the death panels at their local hospitals.