Who's Watching the Children

Outrageous is a strong term. No word better describes the Monroe county prosecutor's decision not to press charges against parents who chose to leave their three-year old toddler unattended in their unlocked car while they went to a movie. I don't subscribe to the philosophy that it takes a village to raise a child, but I do believe it's the prosector's duty to protect the children. In a town like Bloomington, strange crimes are always occurring (many based on drugs). Any parent who thought for even a brief moment their child was safe in a parking lot needs to be shaken back to reality. Prosecutors usually can do that.

But back to the parents. Haven't they read about amber alerts, stolen children, kidnappings and the like?Are they so isolated that they've escaped the tons of mail and milk cartons with missing children's faces. Don't they see near-daily reports of children being mistreated as a result of parental neglect. If nothing more, the prosecutor should have at least brought some kind of charges. It's too bad that parental stupidity isn't an arrestable offense especially for the sake of the children. Maybe they all need to watch a few episodes of Law and Order.

Traffic Control: Liberalville Style

Liberalville takes pride in making life miserable for those of us who live inside its borders and traverse its streets in cars. Our city fathers would prefer (and truly believe it's feasable) that we rode camels, horses, bicycles, skateboards or any vehicle not requiring carbon- emitting fuels. If Liberalville was a utopia, that might be feasible. But it is not. People have to drive cars to work, to shop, to school and to the hospital. That is the reality. Driving cars is a necessity--not the luxury it might be perceived.

To combat their "carsaphobia," Liberalville neighborhood groups coerce city engineers to erect barriers, concrete planters, flapping plastic obstacles and any other device they can construct to prevent or encumber a person from driving from the east side to the west side of town. They literally dare anyone --emergency vehicles include-- to drive through their neighborhoods unscathed.

The elected Liberalville city council sit in its ivory tower and rubber stamps any random thoughts, ideas or outrageous concepts regarding traffic control brought before them. It pays little or no regard for public safety or convenience. The city constructs traffic barriers with total disregard for merchants, business owners or anyone else that might be relying on customers arriving in motorized vehicles.

Liberalville's scholarly lords and masters just turn their collective cheeks and choose to simply ignore the oublic safety and economic problems they've created. So we, as their constituent serfs, are forced to navigate our way through traffic purgatory while diligently watching for obstacles in our streets that could harm us, our passengers and our vehicles.