“You asked. We listened.” says Metro

Spotted this PSA from Metro on the Blue Line this morning:

You asked. We listened.

You asked for a better way to hold on when you’re standing on a moving Metro train. We think these new handles really fit the bill. And we hope you agree.

Christopher Zimmerman
Chairman, Metro Board of Directors

 

Oh boy!  Not only is Metro now listening to our requests, they are responding and advertising that they’ve done so. 

In the spirit of helping Metro help us, I’ve compiled a few other items in hopes that Metro will listen to these, too. 

1. Eliminate chronic delays on trains.  Some of us have actual jobs with bosses who expect us to be to work on time.  And even if we’re not on our way to work, probably sitting on a stalled train is not how we wanted to spend our time.

2. Recalibrate your bus schedules to take into account actual traffic patterns and drive times.  You’ve been driving in this area for decades, Metro.  Surely you can begin to anticipate where the heavy traffic might slow the bus and adjust your timetables accordingly?

3. If you are only going to have one escalator in a station turned on, have it in the “up” position.

4. Anything you can do about safety, for passengers as well as employees?  Your record on that is not looking so great this year, Metro.

5. No more drivers texting, phoning, or sleeping while operating trains and buses.  We know you are working on that one now.

I have more ideas, Metro, but these will do for starters. 

I asked. I hope you listen.

Remembrance, respect, and gratitude

We will never forget

Cherry Blossom Time

Spring is by far the best time of year in the DC area!

Photo credits: nigelmoose

Loyalty oath? No way.

As Bush the Elder might say, “Not gonna do it…”

What is the Virginia GOP thinking?  The recent announcement by the state Republican party that anyone wishing to vote in the Virginia GOP primary will be required to sign an oath promising to vote for the party’s eventually nominee in the general election is being roundly criticized by those on both sides of the aisle.

At the risk of forfeiting my voice in my party’s candidate selection, I will not sign any such oath.  I don’t care if it is secret and therefore unenforceable.  An oath should be meaningful and binding, and if it’s not, why ask me to sign it anyway?

Diligence, yes. Vilify, no.

Back in June I wrote about a new campaign launched by the Virginia Department of Health targeting sexual abusers of children. The campaign plays on public fears of predators and seems to cast suspicion on any man interacting with a child.

Accompanying radio PSAs are even worse than the billboard. In one that I heard this morning, a mother says in a concerned voice that she works several evenings a week, and on those nights her husband bathes their daughter and puts her to bed. That’s all she says, but the implication, of course, is that if a man is bathing the daughter, something untoward must be taking place. It’s a sickening and offensive assumption.

Are We Teaching Kids to Fear Men?

The controversy has left father of two Barry Pfluger in an uncomfortable situation. “My reaction is we have gone too far,” said the girls’ soccer coach of eight years.

Pfluger said now men have to question whether or not they can even give children a hug.

“It should be something that we just do that’s human nature and we shouldn’t have to think about the liability associated with it,” he added.

I find this whole campaign so insulting to men and particularly fathers. As a mother of two young children I am certainly as worried as anyone about sexual predators, but I think this approach is opportunistic and only serves to further vilify and alienate good and honest men from their rightful place in children’s lives.

Surely we need to be vigilant in protecting children as there are very real threats out there. But let’s not make it seem like any and every man who has a legitimate reason to be involved in a child’s life is up to no good.

Fathers beware: we’re watching you

A new campaign by the Virginia Department of Health to eradicate sexual abuse of children opened in the Hampton Roads area with billboards showing an image of a man holding a child’s hand, with the caption “It doesn’t feel right when I see them together.”

While the intentions behind this campaign are laudable, the effect may be to vilify men who are showing affection toward their children. In an age when we rightly lament the marginalization and/or absence of fathers, the use of this image in this campaign has the potential to strike another blow against healthy father/child relationships. When it comes to pedophiles, I’m of the belief that castration is a good start, and execution a good finish. But don’t take the sweet image of a man holding a child’s hand and use it to suggest something dirty. Be diligent, yes, but let’s not encourage a witch hunt.

This billboard makes me feel icky when I look at it. But that’s the idea, I guess.