[UFO Chicago] Re: btg/Panel discussion/debate

[Jordan Bettis]

Adam H. Kerman said:

> Whom do you suggest? The anti-smoking movement supports way too much
> government nannying for my taste. We're more liberal, fighting
> socialist policies like Pave Over America.


Adam, you really needed to have attended that meeting.  Marsha suggested
inviting someone from the anti-smoking lobby to explain how they managed
to change public perceptions about smoking so quickly. A few decades ago,
one might say, "'you mean you don't smoke?" in the same astonished manner
in which one might say, "'you mean you don’t have a car?" today. The hope
is that we can get car driving from being accepted as normal today to
being considered a vice partaken in with shame and humility in a few
decades as the anti-smoking lobby has done to cigarettes.

And regardless of what your personal politics are, BTG is a group of
people with disparate politics, save that we all wish to promote
alternatives to the automobile. Beyond that, BTG cannot subscribe to any
political ideology without alienating some subset of its members. It is
not a "liberal" group any more than it is a "socialist" group (whatever
you mean by those terms). If a policy promotes independence from
automobiles, BTG should support it; if it promotes car-dependence, then we
should oppose it. End of story.

Finally, these sorts of arguments are not appropriate on this list. The
purpose of this list is to help organize BTG activities. I’m not the
administer, but I think we should seriously consider moderating posts to
the list if this continues.

-- 
Jordan Bettis -- Chicago Il.
  <http://neighborhoods.chicago.il.us>
    Photographs of Life in the Neighborhoods of Chicago