So we can all debate

[giandujakiss]

How relevant it is to Mitt Romney's fitness to serve as president that he was a toxic, nasty bully in high school.

But here's my takeaway - why the hell was Wonn­berger allowed behind the wheel of a car?

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

why the hell was Wonn­berger allowed behind the wheel of a car?

It was suburban Michigan in the 1960s. Except for a handful of cities, the midwest is extraordinarily car-focused. And suburbia is car-focused, on top of that. In a world where it's impossible to live as an independent adult without driving...most people will drive if it's even close to possible. Their families and friends, their doctors, even legal authorities, hesitate to take their keys away because it would mean so much loss of functionality.

More than once, I've seen ableism expressed as, "It's so horrible that [obscenity] of a cop took his license away and made him lose his job," rather than "It's horrible he can't see well enough to drive anymore, and so he got fired," or "It's horrible that not being able to drive means getting fired from an office job." I see how it might make a cop hesitate.

(I speak as someone who grew up in suburban Michigan, and later moved to Boston because there is public transit here. One of the teachers at my high school (in the 1980s) had limited vision, though he was not quite blind. I'm sure it was not safe for him to drive, as he had several minor accidents in the 3 years I was paying attention. As somebody who had to share the road with him, I wish he hadn't clung so desperately to keys/car/license; yet I understand why he did it.)

It's easy to forget how expectations of safety have changed over the years. They just started putting seatbelts in cars in 1955, and they started out as options you had to pay extra for. Drunk driving used to be much more socially acceptable, more likely to be winked at by authorities. As driving gets safer, people care more about trying to get rid of risks that used to sort of fade into the background.

[giandujakiss]

Ah, I see - I myself have tended to confine myself to cities. That sounds ... like a really scary time to be around roads.

I do remember the days when drunk driving was barely even noticed - in fact, when W was president, there was a comedian who had a great riff on the fact that W had been arrested for drunk driving in, like, the 1970s or something. The comedian was like, "Does anyone remember just how drunk you had to be to get arrested for drunk driving in the 70s?" It was hilarious.