Save Us from Yourself

My good friend Robert C. Benchley, the genial humorist who died 12 years before I was born, told me over lunch today there actually is something he loathes, people who feel a need to speak on your behalf when you’re perfectly able to do so yourself. He notes that often times the irksome matter is something that is not a bother — or you would have spoken up — but the helper is trying to show strength by appointing himself as spokesman. Here is how Mr. Benchley puts it:

“They represent the worst element in our civilization — the Brother’s Keeper.”

Actually Mr. Benchley in the early 1930s essay “Awake, Awake,” was referring to houseguests who are cheery early risers while their host is neither. Context gets in the way, doesn’t it?

Today’s Wall Street Journal finds people complaining about the quietness of hybrid cars. The battery in them takes over when the car idles so at intersections it is possible that blind pedestrians may walk into a Toyota Prius or Honda hybrid. Their drivers naturally would stop, honk or swerve if they saw a person in front of them, especially if the white cane was present.

The cars have been sold in America since 2000. The article notes that police and insurance have no statistics on whether gas-electric hybrids have struck or killed any blind people these seven years, but we do have anecdotal close-shaves. In a case noted, the guide dog noticed the semi-electric car. Arf!

Fortunately, the Journal found an advocacy group to quote:

“The National Federation of the Blind … says all hybrid vehicles should emit a sound while turned on and is calling on the auto industry to make changes. The group says the sound should be loud enough to be heard over the din of other ambient noise.”

Drivers are obligated to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Drivers have horns. Hybrids’ very quietness demonstrates their energy efficiency. Artificial noise at already noisy intersections is absurd. We can see now the NFB calling for noisemakers to be added to the shoes of joggers and wheels of bicycles.

If Mr. Benchley were alive to hear about this, why I imagine he would order another drink. -30-