The more things change the more we forget things changing.
Remember when you could walk into a restaurant and there would be a cloud of cigarette smoke?
A few progressive eateries of the time provided non-smoking sections which were often tables right next to smoking section tables but had no ashtray. Those were the tables vegetarians sat to eat their choice of meals, either pasta primavera or a grilled cheese sandwich. Not that all vegetarians were non-smokers, or all flesh eaters were. I never make broad sweeping statements like that.
20 years ago or more there was a sandwich shop in Keene Valley, the Cliffhanger Café. It was a non-smoking café, and the first time we stopped in we realized we would have to make it a regular stop because all of the sandwich choices were tempting and we wanted to try all of them. It probably wasn’t until the 3rd visit we realized that all of the choices were vegetarian. After a few years I think they added a turkey sandwich to accommodate customers who couldn’t seem to survive a meal without meat. The owners made no note of it being a vegetarian establishment and it was a popular place. I imagine that they would have failed quickly if they promoted it as a vegetarian dining option.
In 2004 the N.Y. State Clean Indoor Air Act ended smoking in N.Y. restaurants. At first a lot of people predicted doom for the restaurant industry but GlensFalls seems to have a thriving foodie culture.
People have a hard time with change and that is why we have legislation to mandate necessary protections for health and safety, but there are 12 states that still allow smoking in restaurants; WY, OK, TX, MO, MI, AL, TN, KT, VA, WV, SC, and GA. Most of those states still maintain the federal $7.25/hr minimum wage as well. If it were up to states like that we wouldn’t have laws requiring seat belt usage because people have the freedom to splatter their brains across the pavement in an accident. Call me weird but I don’t think that freedom overrides the freedom of an EMT to not have to clean their brains off the road.
A lot of people believe that the government gets in the way of innovation. Just look at the amazing innovation of Tesla EV company. If the government would just get out of Elon Musk’s way we would all be in self driving cars by now.
Some people will think I’m being a little nitpicky, but I can’t help wondering how much innovation Musk would have created if it weren’t for government contracts, government tax incentives, basic government research, and government legislation intended to stimulate technological progress. I will admit, tho, Musk has a genius for sucking at the government teat and declaring himself a technology wizard for doing it.
So while Musk is inaccurately described as a founder of Tesla EV car company much of the technological development was done in the 1960’s, before Musk was born rich in 1971.
Congress wrote the Clean Air Act of 1963 and the Electric Vehicle Act of 1966 to stem the dual problems of air pollution and reliance on imported oil. In response the Big Three automakers and American Motors (AMC) worked on development of mass produced electric vehicles, EVs. AMC developed a EV prototype, the 1967 Amitron which pioneered many of the basic principles of modern electric autos, advanced batteries linked to a solid state control system, regenerative braking, low rolling resistance and low aerodynamic drag.
AMC also pioneered the idea of making the ugliest vehicles in the world which would later be copied by other major manufacturers. In the Amitron you can see design principles that would later be used in the AMC Gremlin (I once owned not one but 2 Gremlins) and the AMC Pacer which was famous for the ability to transport a 6’ submarine sandwich sideways! Also, see Wayne’s World. My high school friend John’s mom owned a Pacer and he would drive us around in what seemed like a fishbowl. (I was saddened recently to see an obituary for John’s mom. I hadn’t seen her in decades but we were friends on Facebook and it was nice to stay connected through that)
Anyway, about a decade after everyone laughed the Pacer and Gremlin out of existence we started seeing cars like the Ford Pinto and the Plymouth Horizon on the road that looked suspiciously Gremlin-like. Then Subaru started making the Outback which was nothing more than a AMC Eagle AWD with a Pacer body style. And now, 5 decades later, Tesla’s Cybertruck mimics the Amitron with an extended trunk seemingly built by DeLorean motors. Innovation!
So, the point is we as a species find change really hard to deal with. Many of us still follow religions rooted in Copper or Bronze Age mythology, a time when the idea of major technological change was a wooden wheeled ox cart. The innovation of horses was millennia in the future. 6,000 years ago the concept of a world that was dynamic and ever changing was essentially unthinkable. Years passed in unending succession lost in the mists of time, of cyclical seasonal change, only the passage of planets in the sky giving indication of potential for radical change.
We are genetically predisposed to crave consistency.
There is one consistency we have inherited from those long dead ancestors that is overdue for change - we need legal recognition that all people, including women, but also people who are culturally dispossessed like those who have different personal ideas about gender are equal under the law.
Proposition 1 on the back of your New York State ballot will protect people with disabilities, stop discrimination against LGBTQ workers, and provide Constitutional protection for women’s reproductive rights.
It’s a very basic concept, and really not modern at all, but as with so many other ideas a lot of people are extremely resistant. People are afraid of change and they will make up scary stories about how guaranteeing basic rights will somehow ruin America. We saw that with legislation to end smoking in restaurants, and legislation to require use of life saving seat belts. But we look back at a time when people lit up a cigarette while you were enjoying your dinner as bizarre. We don’t give buckling up a second thought. We feel like things have always been this way. Let’s make that how we feel about basic human rights in N.Y.
When you vote this year remember to flip your ballot and vote YES on Prop 1.
https://www.nyclu.org/commentary/why-new-yorkers-should-vote-yes-on-proposition-1