Walking and Reading -lost arts ?

Health News today : Center for Disease Control- noting the

    " growing problem of childhood obesity " - suggests " Let kids

    bike or walk to school ".

                 Reading this I am reminded of my walking experience

    while a resident of Warwick, R.I.  I soon learned that a typical

    suburban sprawl city like Warwick is very pedestrian unfriendly.

    Equally unfriendly to any kid or adult on a bike.

               Just recently a kid on a bike was hit and run victim

    on Church Ave. - the long, broad street where  I lived.  They

    caught the guilty guy - an assistant school principal - an

    expert RULE ENFORCER !

            A while back a kid was killed while trying to cross

    busy Warwick Ave. near the corner of Church Ave. Late at night

    I listened to the disgusting sound of drag racing or of screeching

    brakes on the " nice neighborhood " street.

              A man just taking a walk on Church Ave. would - I know-

    arouse neighborly suspicion. A man without a car in Warwick has

    got to be a dangerous bum, thinks the dime dropper. When a police

    car slowly drives by me -checking me out for sure signs of

    criminality - I recall one of my favorite Ray Bradbury stories:

    " The Pedestrian ".

                Young or not so young - forget about taking walks in

    Warwick. There is a crosswalk -finally - in front of the new

    Warwick Public Library. But hardly any cars take it seriously.

               Inside the library you soon learn that READING is

    as suspicious an activity as walking. Every 10 minutes a Warwick

    Police officer passes by  your quiet corner -as if he were on

    the beat.  NEXT TIMES he will catch me tearing up that book and

    chewing on the pages : " If this guy were normal, he'd be home

    drinking beer and watching football on TV and beating up his

    wife like a regular Warwick guy - not reading silly books like

    a god damned commie pervert ! "

                 You wonder why so many kids are fat and stupid

    today ? Our wonderful way of life makes them that way !

                Yesterday I observed two kids hop on the bus - it

    was a free OZONE ALERT DAY - and then get off just a few blocks

    down the street. I'll bet reading is as laborious an activity

    for them as walking.

        And I'll bet a WALKING kid is the better reader. The pace

    of walking is the pace of thinking, the rythmn of reading for

    pleasure.

              In Ray Bradbury's golden future  walking and reading

    will get you put away in a " nut house ".

                Not a bright future for newspaper editors either !