Portable Fiasco

I am no gear-head, but I spent a little time at a local "cruise-in" event this weekend and took a few pictures.

Few owners of the carefully restored cars on display were running the engines or moving them around. I'm sure that's largely out of concern for the wear and tear that causes, but I think there might be another reason.

At rest, these cars are pure jet-age googie-deco starship fantasy. They don't look like machines that could ever be sullied by anything as nasty as petroleum. An illusion that's quickly shattered when they do cough to noisy, fume-spewing life.

These are artifacts from a time when one of America's largest industries was, arguably, selling dreams incarnate. The artifacts survive because a few people still cherish those dreams. I can't blame them.

Mostly, the world is safe. Mostly, people are good. To emphasize the opposite is to live in the world of tabloid TV. A world filled with worst-case scenarios, not the world we actually live in, which is factually, statistically, and, luckily for us, one of the safest periods for children in the history of the world.

-- Advice from ‘America’s worst mom’

Maybe it's easy for me to say, not having any kids. But I think this needs to be repeated over and over through the world's biggest megaphone, if possible. What's the point of making the world safer if we're going to cower in fear regardless?