Call it Slaughter
Astronomers observe that the brightest stars burn for the shortest time. David Ramsden is dead -- slaughtered -- his beautiful body broken by a big machine operating in a public space. We who outlive him have lost his charming and generous presence. We have also lost all that his talent, energy and enthusiasm would have achieved had they bloomed for more than twenty-three years. We should remind ourselves now and again that we are far more likely to have our life extended by the benefits of gentle exercise on a bike than to have it curtailed by death or injury. But David's extinction demands consideration. A hundred years of motor-culture ascendancy have made the taking of human life by those operating motor vehicles a commonplace. It happens to some people, in some places, every day. Let David stand for all the lives wasted by the metal plague. How much longer and how many more? A cyclist dies on a city-centre roadway: straight away you can make some shrewd guesses. It probably wasn't
Call it Slaughter Home Humour Essays Travel Images Call it Slaughter by Patrick Field Astronomers observe that the brightest stars burn for the shortest time. David Ramsden is dead -- slaughtered -- his beautiful body broken by a big machine operating in a public space. We who outlive him have lost his charming and generous presence. We have also lost all that his talent, energy and enthusiasm would have achieved had they bloomed for more than twenty-three years. We should remind ourselves now and again that we are far more likely to have our life extended by the benefits of gentle exercise on
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