Ride Without Helmets, Don’t Get Vaccinated, Live Free and Die
Back when Americans didn’t complain about vaccines, motorcyclists had to wear helmets in 47 of 50 states
We’ve understood for a while now that the right to buy and tote as many guns of any kind as you like, unregistered guns that hold as many rounds as you like and fire as rapidly as you like, is the sine qua non of American freedom. During the last year, we’ve discovered that so are the rights to eschew masks and vaccines during a viral pandemic.
Since the pandemic began, I’ve spent a lot of time in rural Connecticut, where there are tons of motorcyclists. By my reckoning, half of them don’t wear helmets. Which I found surprising. Because just across the border in New York, my home base, everyone riding a motorcycle is required by law to wear a helmet. In fact, as I recalled my early 1970s youth in Nebraska when I occasionally rode motorcycles, it seemed like helmets were required pretty much everywhere in the United States.
It turns out I remembered correctly. But now they aren’t legally required in most places. Why? For the same reason that back then Americans hadn’t yet started making a big deal out of sensible public health measures like mandatory vaccination and gun regulation. Because the death-cult redefinition…
