Original air bag poster repents for sins

["Shaun D. Mullen" <smullen@philly.infi.net>]

MSV96@aol.com wrote:
> I gather by your comments you don't have children...As a parent whose ex-wife
> owns an air bag equipped Jetta I am terrified for my children's safety in
> event she decides to allow one of our children in the front seat of her car
> for a "harmless" trip around the corner...I have told her I will file child
> endagerment charges if she ever were to do so. Knowing her, that may not stop
> her from using common sense. The switch (or better yet NO f'ing airbag) would
> help in her case.

What I think matters less than the need for dialogue on a contentious
and enormously complex issue like airbags where there are valid
arguments on all sides (and there certainly are more than two) of the
matter.  Regretably, it seems like even agreement on that is difficult,
if not impossible.

I brought the unusual and aberrant Minnesota incident to the list's
attention because . . . it was unusual and aberrant.  And was as vivid
and human an illustration that I've seen in some time of how complex the
air bag issue is.  Whether the government's numbers are cooked or not
cooked is probably a matter of personal choice.  I personally believe
they PROBABLY are more or less an accurate representation of that
landscape, but that is because I spend much of my professional life
dealing with people who analyze complex databases and I do not smell a
rat.  You are welcome to do so.  

Finally, assume nothing.  In fact, I have two children.  This is a major
reason why I drive a quattro and their mother and stepfather each drive
Volvos.  There are a total of nine airbags in those three vehicles. 
Yes, nine.  Whether those air bags should or should not have been
installed, whether there should be cut-off switches in them, or whether
my son or daughter should be allowed to reach down and pick up a dropped
tissue while in any of those three automobiles, is first and foremost
something for me to decide for myself and my former wife and her husband
to decide for themselves.  Secondarily, it is our obligation -- should
we feel as strongly about this issue as do you and I -- to make our
views known in whatever forums we feel are appropriate.  But for me, the
bottom line remains: Try to respect where I'm coming from, and I will
try to respect where you are coming from.  In the absence of the
aforementioned dialogue and said respect, these communications need to
be taken off list.

PS: If you have a few hours sometime, I'll buy you a beer and tell you
story after story after story of the many horrific accidents I covered
as a young police reporter in the years before those nasty
authoritarians in Klintonia mandated better brakes, protected gas tanks,
stronger passenger cages, shoulder harnesses, side-impact beams and,
yes, air bags.  I'd start with the one about the four young Marines on
leave from Parris Island on their way home to see their families that I
came upon early one morning on I-95 minutes after they crashed their
car.  The smell of flesh was overwhelming.  Smoke was pouring from their
eye sockets.  And . . .  Nah, I'll save the rest for when we have that
beer.