It stands to reason that in Pennsylvania, the ad below would strike home with at least a fair number of viewers; otherwise it would not have been produced/aired there. However, if this were aired in Portland, I’m certain at least nine out of ten individuals would wonder — as I did — if it was in fact a parody done by the likes of Saturday Night Live.
When did walking and biking become sacrifices? And in response to the narrator’s question, though there are plenty of people who do effectively use dog sleds, I can think of at least ten good reasons to not adapt them as a standard means of transportation.
Maybe we should abandon all the ‘wacky’ personal sacrifices already required by law. Why not just throw trash on the ground whenever and where ever? And for that matter, sometimes it can really be a pain to seek out a public restroom; especially considering that we’re all fully capable of simply squatting right on the sidewalk.
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Jeez, that had my blood boiling. What kind of [insert rude word of choice here] would have that sort of attitude? I cycle my kids to two different schools every day, winding my way through this massive traffic jam of people who probably live no more than 5km away. It takes me less than five minutes to travel the 2km to the first school: a friend who lives not much farther said it takes her half an hour to drive to the same destination. It’s often baffled me how anyone can justify spewing so much carbon into the atmosphere (it’s super-slow town centre driving, even worse in the ‘rush hour’ before school starts). This week it dawned on me that they value the comfort of their heated cars more than their environment. Not bad people, just people who don’t think. They probably see me as the weirdo. I’m not American, but if anyone wants me to not vote for them that ad would do it. What [another expletive here, in plural] can still have that attitude these days!
Sorry if that was a bit of an excessive reaction, you touched on a very raw nerve there.
By: Nadia Williams on October 4, 2008
at 3:40 pm