Editor,
I am glad I don't have a car. I would not keep a car if you gave me one for free. I haven't owned a car since 1979. I enjoy the freedom of not having a car. I save much money and many resources: oil, metals, rubber, etc. I avoid all parking and traffic tickets. I don't have any hassle with car repairs, car theft, car crashes, flat tires, vandalism, monthly payments, depreciation, road rage, paying for insurance and finding a parking space.
I walk most places I go in town. Our legs are great doctors. Much walking strengthens bones and heart, prevents diabetes, clears the mind and stimulates blood circulation. Cars spoil people, making their bodies fat, lazy and sick.
Most people worldwide cannot afford to own cars. Imagine how much sicker our Earth would be if all people old enough on Earth drove cars like most Americans.
Almost one-third of U.S. energy and resources go into making and operating cars. Cars vomit poisons that cause lung disease and cancer and ravage immune systems. Car crashes cripple, paralyze and kill millions. Cars isolate people from other people and from nature. Highways, garages and parking lots smother millions of acres of fertile soil. Cars are a major cause of catastrophic global climate change.
Most Americans are addicted to driving their cars as much as their dollars and time allow. Most Americans are drunk on gasoline. Mot Americans don't have a strong conscience against hogging the world's resources and poisoning the Earth for future generations. Most Americans regard this insane deadly addiction to driving cars as their absolute right far more important than freedom of speech and far more precious than the lives and homelands of Iraqis, Nigerians, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Afghans, etc., destroyed in the U.S. empire's mad pursuit of oil. The gas you buy is mixed with the blood and tears of multitudes exploited and murdered so spoiled Americans can drive their cars as many miles as they please. I had a driver's license for more than 36 years, but I did not renew it when it expired in December 2000.
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I pledged never to own a car the rest of my life. I haven't ridden in anyone's car since April 7, 2001 - almost eight years. Sometimes, I ride the bus or train.
We borrow the Earth from those who come after us. We can change our stupid, selfish ways. I love to walk.
Don Schrader
Daily Lobo reader
