Against earbuds

Everyday, as a bicycle commuter from south Anchorage to downtown, I am bewildered and amazed by the number of fellow bikers with personal sound systems replacing the reality around them. Of course it’s not just cyclists, but rollerbladers, skateboarders, and walkers. I would dismiss it as a somewhat faddish personal preference were it not that it might contribute to some unfortunate incidents, death being one, and impolite inconvenience to other trail users being another. Cheerily, we’ll discuss death first.

Don’t we all get a kick reading the Darwin awards, about fellow homo sapiens doing things that show really that in some ways the line from apes to humans might really be a descent, not an ascent? Darwin awards are given to people who do incredibly, sometimes creatively, stupid things that show our species’ survival to be less than a sure thing. Many times a day I am alerted to the sound of a motor vehicle coming up on my right by a faint whoosh, an exhaust note, or the clickety-click of studded tires. These are not deliberate attempts by a driver to alert me to their menacing presence, but a barely perceptible clue that I use to turn for a visual look, move over further to the right if possible, or stop and check before someone possibly makes a right turn onto me, a creature lower on the transportation food chain. These kinds of occasions alone are tremendous reasons why I’ll never replace the sound around me with an MP3 of Queen, Dire Straits, or Eva Cassidy. There are many other safety advantages I reap daily that I’m not taking the time to remember or list. Just not getting flattened seems a pretty good reason. Let me add that having buds in, or phones on, at a low volume, as some have explained to me, may allow you to hear screeching tires, blaring horns, or bellowed obscenities, but those are already near-death experiences, not the much fainter sounds that keep one out of trouble in the first place. Instead of a bicyclist rushing to her death at 17 MPH, let’s take instead the case of a rollerblader on a trail who cannot hear what’s behind her while burning her calories, pushing her baby-jogger and listening to her personal audio tracks. Shouting does not work. There is no way to get in touch with this person. Rollerbladers are possibly the worst because the are fast enough to cause trouble quickly (if you try passing by whatever edge they’ve left you, unannounced), and because their side-to-side stride takes up so much space, the taller they are, the worse it gets. But the same applies to approaching walkers or slower cyclists from behind, when they just can’t be bothered with plugging in to the rest of the boring and inconsequential world around them. If it were just them who would get hurt, I’d not mind it, but a tumble from 20 MPH caused by their lack of caring is something I’d like to avoid. Somehow the fifteen seconds it might take to get their attention under the worst case seems like time they are taking from other community members and sharers of the path, just because they can.

Finally, how about the idea that just maybe there is real enjoyment and education being presented right to my ears if I just unplug and allow myself to be part of the world around me.

Jim Durand

Anchorage

Against Prop 2

Ballot Initiative Two is dangerous for Alaska because it would mandate parental notification of young women under 18 seeking an abortion. While family support and communication are absolutely essential, especially for an unplanned pregancy, there are two main flaws I see in this effort. The first is that the state has no right to mandate family communication. The second is that some teens come from families in which telling their parents they're pregnant is not a safe thing to do. This initiative puts those kids at specific risk. The "out" provided by Prop 2 is for these kids to go through intimidating, lengthy legal procedures. Faced with those obstacles, teens may delay safe treatment and instead seek other, unsafe, illegal options.

This is not about whether you aprove of abortion or not. This is about keeping teens from facing the horrors of backalley abortions, abuse, and homelessness.

Full disclosure: I am an occassional phone bank volunteer for Alaskans Against Government Mandates.

Rebecca Barker

Anchorage