Editor’s Note
Back in the old days — that’s less than a decade and before there were such things as blogs and interactive conversations with readers — editors used to respond to their newspaper readers with an “editor’s note.” Sometimes it clarified a point made in a letter to the editor. Sometimes it offered a correction. Sometimes it was just a simple explanation. An editor’s note was a handful of sentences; maybe a four or five paragraphs. It was always a personal link between the editor and the reader. Only difference between it and today’s blog is the immediacy and the platform. Welcome to Editor’s Note.

Archive for April 21st, 2009

Here’s a headline I do not believe

8 comments April 21st, 2009

“Drivers would stop at crosswalks under law.”

That headline in Tuesday’s Register Star must have been written by a gentle soul willing to forgive every whacko downtown Rockford driver who ever tried to run him or her down. As anyone who works at the News Tower can tell you, drivers do not yield to pedestrians. Period. Not even with a yield sign, crosswalks and, occasionally, a human being standing in the middle of the street.

Nope. Instead, they come gunning for the pedestrian. As far as I’m concerned, handing them a ticket for a couple hundred bucks is small potatoes. Charge and prosecute a couple of them for attempted murder and we might make some headway.

I respect Rockford Deputy Chief Theo Glover a ton, but he’s quoted in the newspaper saying this about the three “yield” crosswalks in downtown, one of which is right here at the News Tower: “Motorists do seem to be mindful of the yield, and we haven’t fielded any complaints about it from motorists or pedestrians.”

Theo, I swear, if I had known no one had complained, I’d have been first in line. Anyone who tries to cross East State Street is tossing up a prayer to God.

I stop for pedestrians at that intersection — and I’ve missed being rear-ended by an inch, not to mention the idiots who swerve to pass me on the right and eke by the pedestrian by a couple more. Then, there’s this “curb dance” we play. Step off, get blown back, step back on again, pray, step off, blown back, run to the middle, pray, stop, pray, get blown on both sides, run to the other side. Drop on knees and shout “thank you, Lord.” Get up. Try to act dignified.

It’s not much of a stretch.

We are grateful that the yield signs finally were installed a few years ago. Took decades to get them. These days they occasionally get stolen, are regularly on their sides because motorists sideswipe them. But, they’re there to prove that we pedestrians have the right away even if we’re road kill.

An Illinois legislator wants tougher, clearer pedestrian laws. Hear. Hear. Charge the offenders with attempted murder. Raise the fines high enough to fund the city deficits. Stake out pedestrian walkways and do regular stings. Please do it before some motorist actually kills a News Tower employee.