Thoughts, on Plastic Bag Tax, Bikes and Cars

When I heard Portland may tax residents $.20 per plastic bag they use at stores, I thought, "What a bunch of baloney." I suppose this will include every store, not just target those poor grocery stores. It should be all inclusive, if the creators of such an idea are sincere.

But if they feel the plastic bag is so deadly, why not just ban them?

Why impose a tax, that is costly to retrieve and cumbersome for those who must collect it, i.e. retailers. If plastic bags are evil, ban them.

When a city taxes them, then I begin to wonder. They want money not results from decreased plastic.

Ban them if you have the guts and are not really motivated by that tax money. Have the clothe bags by check out for people to buy if they didn't bring their own. If some nonprofit feels sorry for people who won't buy their own, or claim they're too lazy or stupid to, then fine, they can buy them from the store, and have a nonprofit booth there to hand them out. If you ban them, no more plastic bags in the landfill and the stated intent of keeping them out of the environment is quickly achieved. Stores don't have to deal with the tax crap and can make money selling the clothe bags.

Taxing the plastic bag is ridiculous, causes consumers more angst and is a stupid cumbersome idea. Cut it out, government. If the plastic bag is bad, ban it.

What happened to reason and intelligent debate? Talk about deliberately dumbing down the public, by making choices for them, without debate. Talk about force of government.

If you want to make such a change, banning plastic bags, then debate it intelligently, with facts to support your desired ban and make the intelligence and facts of the case for banning, to the public. Don't assume the public is stupid, because if that assumption is made often enough, the public will tune out and expect the government to rule their lives, for better or for worse.

But don't be daddy knows best government, taking choices away from the citizens of a free country. The citizens should make the choice based on facts and, I believe, they would make the right choice, with unbiased unlittered public debate, such as could take place at places like the Corvallis Open forum.

There could be public debates between teams of common citizens, and a team chosen as winner of the debate, whose facts and arguments are best.

As for bikes sharing the road with motorists, bikes need to obey traffic laws. And they should respect the auto. Even a tiny collision with a car because of weight difference is going to turn out badly for the biker. Also, bikes aren't paying a gas tax, which maintains the roads the bikers are riding. So, a little respect for those autos.

People driving cars know about how long it is going to take them to get to their destination. Sometimes getting to a destination on time is very important. When bikers cluster in front of cars and slow them to a standstill, purposely, they are saying to everyone, "Our agenda is all important. Fuck you." It's a form of dictatorship, fascism, forcing their will, their values, onto everyone else.

Again, we live in a free country. Sure, riding bikes is great exercise and reduces carbon pollution. But, when we cross a line and try to force our lifestyle on others, because we think it is better than theirs, that is the same thing as inflicting force on others, over-riding free choice, taking away freedom, and the slope becomes slippery into fascism.

It is far better to win others over with the intelligence of the argument in favor. Not only is this the peaceful way, but it promotes thought and reason, which is a good thing.

Here is something else I find interesting. The relatively few neighbors of the Country Fair held in Veneta for three days once a year, complain every year, about the noise, traffic, trash and just in general.

The Fair responds by going out of its way to try to get fair visitors to be polite to fair neighbors, even giving neighbors signs for their driveways, that request people to be good neighbors. Yet still the complaints, every year. So why does the news even print neighbor complaints?

I ask this when you compare it to the trashing of neighborhoods, noise, traffic and mayhem created by football games. I know very well the problems, because I lived in the Fred Meyer district, then near the stadium. It was hell every home game, neighborhoods trashed, drunken behavior, noise all night. And you know what, complaints, if any are totally ignored.

So what's the difference? The Country Fair is the the alternative crowd's once yearly rendevous, largely scoffed at by the testosterone driven big moneyed football crowd. In our society, money and testosterone still talk loudest. Testosterone has to be heard by nature of its nature.

I say, Leave the Country Fair alone. Neighbors of the fair, how about you being good neighbors to the fair? It brings lots of money to your area. This is exactly the line given anyone who complains about the vandalism, drinking, drunk driving, littering, noise and drug activity that comes with every football home game.