Hooray for sprawl!

The new newest reason for totalitarian control of your life is that we just can’t protect you from those horrid bombers in the mass transit system. (Witness the London bombings.) So now we are intermittently checking bags of the people that enter into the system. People who refuse are denied the privilege of using these (heavily) government subsidized systems. But then, presumably, all the bomber has to do is wait for a few minutes or hours then try again. Or perhaps try at another station. I suspect this will have no impact on the security of these systems. It will however, train a few hundred thousand (million?) people that giving up their privacy is required to provide for their safety.

But what is the alternative?

As I alluded to the other day: Once the government told everyone that their safety lies in the cities; that cities are good for the environment; and that urban sprawl is bad. Now, having corralled too many people in a too small a space, they must deal with the inevitable results.

Is community gone? In cities the required mass and communal transit systems are an invitation to those looking for bigger and bigger headlines. In little towns in TN, and even in little cafes in the UP of Michigan it’s not unusual to be asked “where you from?” or my personal favorite “You ain’t from round here are yeh?”

Sure everybody knows everybody. That’s sort of the point. Even in the little city I live in now; I know everyone in my neighborhood by sight, and they know me. Of course if I go to the mall, there will be a bunch of people I don’t know. But even this “big” mall in this little city isn’t much of a target. The headlines might stay up a few days, but compared to the twin towers or the Chicago/NYC rail system, or even DC’s metro: it’s nothing. Not even worth mentioning. And if it was, then it’s just like every other small town mall in the US.

Even absent terrorists, the small cities and towns don’t have near the problems the metropolis’s have. Just about everybody knows your kids, and you know everybody else’s. If one or more gets out of line, it’s pretty expected that somebody will either have a talk with them, or talk to you about them. And those bullies? They got a way of working themselves out.

I’m not saying that small towns and cities are perfect. Fact it that they are human creations just like you or I. As such they are full of fallen sinners desperately in need of salvation and the daily grace of our LORD. But there’s less of them, and a greater opportunity hold each other accountable.

Cities? Just another opportunity for government to destroy community, family, and privacy, while at the same time telling you that it’s for your own good.