() Comments
It's time to put a lid on motorcycle carnage
When an otherwise uptight, middle-class, Midwestern state gains a reputation for a colorful biker culture that prides itself on running wild and free, some people accept that excitement always carries an edge of danger.
But others probably aren't yet ready to change the motto on our license plates to a variation on New Hampshire's - "Live Free and Die."
When Wisconsin repealed its motorcycle helmet law in 1978, cynics saw it as a way of improving the human gene pool. Through Darwinian selection, stupid people who didn't wear helmets would die off and intelligent people who wore helmets would survive and multiply.
As the fatalities continue to mount, the joke's not so funny any more. Motorcycle deaths in Wisconsin are double what they were just a year ago. Deaths and serious injuries among motorcycle riders have been steadily rising all across the nation for the past six years.
In 1975, 47 states had laws requiring riders to wear helmets. Now only 20 states do. Who says we get smarter as we get older? We can't simply accept the carnage as throwbacks making a free choice to go out in a blaze of glory. Every one of those fatalities was somebody's parent or child.
Even worse, those who romanticize the wind through their hair - not to mention through their ears - are encouraging a whole generation of young riders to go without helmets. Young people, who otherwise could have worthwhile, productive lives, really don't need any encouragement to ride recklessly.
The name of the strongest state lobby against motorcycle helmets illustrates how a simple, intelligent safety measure can be demonized by a right-wing, anti-government, militia mentality.
The lobby is called ABATE, which stands for A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments.
The name implies that totalitarian governments such as the old Soviet Union used to oppress their citizens by making them walk around wearing motorcycle helmets. That must be why so many of them wore those big, furry hats - to hide their shame.
Thank god we live in the good, ol' USA where we have a Constitution guaranteeing the rights of motorcycle riders to scramble their brains across the pavement. It's right there in our Bill of Rights following the amendment guaranteeing our right to snowmobile after drinking heavily.
There actually are semi-legitimate politicians who lend support to this loony way of thinking. One of the most prominent is State Sen. Dave Zien (R-Eau Claire), a biker himself, who declares: "I refuse to believe that helmets should be forced down people's throats."
Zien's absolutely right about that. Obviously, no one has ever shown him the right way to wear the thing.
Former Gov. Tommy Thompson used to get together a Republican motorcycle gang to roar into Wisconsin towns like Marlon Brando in "The Wild One." When he rode out of town, the townsfolk suddenly realized the bank vault was empty and there was a $3.2 billion deficit.
Requiring drivers to observe safety regulations while traveling at high speeds on our highways has never been considered a totalitarian act of government. We have plenty of laws governing testing, licensing, wearing seat belts, obeying speed limits and prohibiting reckless practices that endanger lives.
The only difference between riding a motorcycle and driving a car is that the rider is even more exposed and vulnerable to death and injury when - not if - the bike goes down.
When Harley-Davidson's 150th anniversary reunion comes to Wisconsin later this summer, we can expect lots of totally unbelievable stories about how bikers are really all lawyers and stockbrokers who ride on weekends. (Right. When is the last time you took investment advice from a 400-pound stockbroker with an "old lady" named Bloody Mama?) If bike riders really want to achieve respectability, they need to stop swaggering around pretending to be some kind of American icons for endangering the lives of themselves and others.
We realized the Marlboro Man wasn't a symbol of American freedom after he died of lung cancer and we found out he'd been damaging everybody else's health all those years with his second-hand smoke.
It's time we realized motorcycle riders who aren't smart enough to put on helmets aren't free of anything but intelligence.
Joel McNally is former editor of the Milwaukee alternative weekly Shepherd Express and appears weekly on the WMVS-TV public television show "Interchange." His e-mail address is: jmcnally@wi.rr.com
Special Offer: Get 5 Weeks of the Journal Times for $7!
