Children Riding Buses Alone
I leave my car at home and travel on a bus at least a couple of times a week so that I can stay in touch with the real world around me and observe the actual people that make up our country. Their discussions (and cursing) on current affairs is probably more informative than your average 30 minute daily news reports.
Yesterday, six little kids wearing school uniforms and carrying school bags got on the bus and rode for a few kilometers before getting off. They were unsupervised, but were totally at ease, joking and playing with each other. None of them looked older than 8 or 9 years old, with the youngest one probably 5 or 6. They were so confident that I wished I had my camera with me.
Watching the kids, I was reminded of the “news” that I read a few days ago – which was covered by a LOT of blogs and websites. The news was about about the “amazing” incident of a mother letting her 9 year old ride the subway alone. Hundreds of children, 5 or 6 years old, travel many kilometers in public transports private buses to go to school – all alone. Perhaps the NY Sun can come and cover these cute kids as well.
The mother commented:
Isn’t New York as safe now as it was in 1963? It’s not like we’re living in downtown Baghdad.
I wonder if she realizes that before “the war”, the Iraqi children from downtown Baghdad were probably also traveling alone – supervised – in public transport – just like our Lahori children… instead of being groped and raped.
The article linked above realizes that
The problem with this everything-is-dangerous outlook is that over-protectiveness is a danger in and of itself.
“A Nation of Wimps” is an apt title for the book mentioned in the article above, but a powerful nation of wimps can do a lot of damage – you can’t really blame the american parents as they are probably just following the footsteps of their leaders.
End of a somewhat disconnected thought-stream.