Caution: School Zone

This goes into a list of "What is our Country Coming To?"

A few excerpts from a New York Times article on the large percentage of parents who won't let their kids walk to school.

Two facts:
--In 1969, 41 percent of children either walked or biked to school; by 2001, only 13 percent still did, according to data from the National Household Travel Survey.

-- About 115 children are kidnapped by strangers each year, according to federal statistics; 250,000 are injured in auto accidents.

And an anecdote:
"Recently, Amy Utzinger, a mother of four in Tucson, Ariz., let her daughter, 7, walk down the block to play with a friend. Five houses. Same side of the street.

Afterward, the friend’s mother drove Mrs. Utzinger’s daughter home. “She said, ‘I just drove her back, just in case ... you know,’ ” recalled Mrs. Utzinger. “What was I supposed to say? How can you argue against ‘just in case’?”

woah!!!@#! For the record, I have three kids and they have all walked and biked to school. None abducted. None in car accidents. Guess the statistics worked out nicely in our favor.