Park a Truck, Save a Child

Law curbs big rig idling; 5 minutes is maximum
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070419-0846-bn19idlingu.html

By Tanya Sierra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
8:46 a.m. April 19, 2007

NATIONAL CITY – In an effort to reduce pollution in National City, officials passed a law this week that prohibits diesel trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds from idling more than five minutes.

The crackdown is aimed at stopping truck driving schools from practicing maneuvers and idling within 100 feet of a school, but also intends to reduce all truck idling in the city.

A man died in February after his family said exhaust from a Momax Truck Driving School big rig induced an asthma attack. Community members and Kimball Elementary School teachers rallied the City Council to prevent this from happening again.

Environmental Health Coalition activists want the new law named after Javier Jimenez, the man who died.

It goes into effect in 30 days.


And you thought it was just about smoking, didn’t you?

Au contraire, mon frere, this is just the beginning. Anything that you do that could possibly have an ill-effect on others will be regulated, then outlawed.

Notice how it’s dressed up as “preventing pollution” in the first sentence, and even works in the trite “for the children” argument in the second paragraph, but then it reveals the true agenda of “making the world safe for everyone.” Newsflash: the world is dangerous. It’s big, has sharp edges, and is apathetic on a universal scale.

I love how the claims of the family of the man that died are accepted without any question. Sorry that the guy bit it, but how can you be so sure it was the truck exhaust? Unless that rig was in your kitchen, he was outside when it happened. Lots of asthma triggers outside:

• infections, usually those caused by a virus (e.g. colds or flu)
• allergens, most commonly from house dust mites, pets or pollen
• play and exercise, especially in cold weather
• emotions, such as excitement, fear or anger
• smoking
• changes in the weather (e.g. a cold spell)
• food allergens
• certain medications

Hmmm. Two triggers linked to colder weather. This was in February, you say?

“Community members and Kimball Elementary School teachers rallied the City Council to prevent this from happening again.”

I can see the presentation now: a really nice bulletin board with stenciled lettering at the top, a picture drawn by each protester connected by yarn, and those slightly corrugated pastel framing strips surrounding it all. They want to outlaw accidental death. Good luck with that.

Isn’t this the same ideology that insists that evolution is the engine of Life? Why, then, do they get so upset when Darwinism eliminates the weak? Just because he had an asthma attack “from a truck” and wasn’t killed by a badger doesn’t make it any less of a natural selection.

“Environmental Health Coalition activists”

Taken separately, none of those words bother me. Put them together, though, and they make me tic. I didn’t know if these were two or three loudmouthed “doctors” that give out opinions like prescriptions (changing them to fit the situation, if the simile wasn’t clear), or if this was a collection of neo-Luddite grassholes still pining for the Free Love days.

So I looked them up. http://www.environmentalhealth.org/

Environmental Health Coalition is one of the oldest and most effective grassroots organizations in the United States, using social change strategies to achieve environmental justice.

Asking the State to create new laws targeting those whose behavior you don’t agree with is not a social strategy; it’s a Socialist strategy. And what the hell is “environmental justice?” You’re lobbying to make sure the grass is equally green on both sides?

Mission Statement: EHC is dedicated to achieving environmental and social justice. We believe that justice is accomplished by empowered communities acting together to make social change. We organize and advocate to protect public health and the environment threatened by toxic pollution. EHC supports broad efforts that create a just society which foster a healthy and sustainable quality of life.

There you go with the justice thing again. If you’re using it the way I think you’re using it, you want everybody to be treated equally. Except for the truck drivers, of course. You want to “foster a healthy and sustainable quality of life”? What are the economic impacts of your little law, there? Are the drivers going to be able to keep up their quality of life? And “toxic pollution” is redundant, by the way.

EHC is a multi-issue organization, with each campaign united by the following beliefs and values:

• All people have the right to live, play and work in a safe and healthy environment.
No argument, here.

• All people have the right and responsibility to act to correct environmental damage and prevent future degradation.
I’m impressed that you remembered the part about personal responsibility.

• EHC represents the public interest and takes direction from the communities we represent.
No. You represent one particular set of interests. The public is a collection of individuals, all with their own agendas and goals. Some of those are diametrically opposed.

• Communities of color and poor communities are disproportionately affected by toxic materials used in the workplace and discharged into the air, land and water.
Oh yeah – ‘cause the smog in LA only clusters over the poor areas. I notice that you separated the otherwise implied correlation between communities of color, and those that are poor. Can we assume, then, that rich colored folks have the same environmental problems as poor white trash?

• Pollution prevention is the most effective approach to addressing the toxics crisis.
Who’s going to deliver the pollution prevention technology if all the trucks are parked?

• EHC supports the integrity of ecosystems and recognizes human dependence on them.
It’s not as delicate a balance as you want us to believe. Nature is infinitely adaptable. The presence of a rare beetle on some land is only of concern to entomologists, who don’t employ nearly as many people as the assembly plant that will be built there.

That reminds me of a funny story: I was in a shop that sold minerals as gifts, and one of their featured items was certain geodes that had water trapped in the bowl. The clerk was trying to impress us with the fact that the water inside the crystal was “millions of years old.” My buddy held up an ice cube from his drink. “So’s this.”

• EHC promotes community and worker right-to-know about toxic chemicals.
Can I get a couple of Material Safety Data Sheets from you?

• It is the government's duty to enact and enforce laws to safeguard the environment, worker and public health.
Broadly, yes. It does not mean that you have the right to ban anything that may upset your histamine levels.

Groups like this use the word “rights” a lot, but that word has been stretched like so much taffy to encompass a lot of different things. Usually what is meant is: “I want that. I deserve that. And you can’t deny me.” It’s more about greed and selfishness than anything else. These people want the nanny-state to enact laws that reduce our society to the lowest common denominator, so they can feel better about themselves.

Right.