Crosswalks, Solstice and Johnny Cash

Don Kramer / Northwest Guardian

We’re coming to that time of year when religious celebrations meet pagan rituals around the shortest day of the year — the Winter Solstice. Many of us moderns ignore Dec. 21, anxious to blast past it to a warmer, brighter season. But it’s been a big deal in our civilization and deserves the respect our history dictates.

One of the best ways I can imagine to respect the Solstice season is by staying alive through it.

I’m speaking now to the young scholar dressed completely in black who walked across North 6th Street last Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. as I turned off Pendleton. You might not remember me, though my brakes and horn made a fair amount of racket.

Either you are some kind of genius, lost in thought over the Iranian nuclear situation, or at that minute, you had a death wish.

The Guardian has published several articles about crosswalk safety in 2011. May I presume you are not a reader?

The JBLM safety people, traffic engineers and construction companies warn those living or working on the installation to be even more mindful when they cross streets and intersections these days. The construction zones that will one day result in boulevards that enhance our convenience and the beauty of JBLM also add to our responsibilities to be vigilant drivers and pedestrians.

The theme of those articles was to not assume anything in a crosswalk: drivers should not assume pedestrians will wait for them to pass, and pedestrians should never assume drivers will stop for them. Experts strongly advise crosswalk etiquette of making eye contact and acknowledging each other’s intentions.

But what if it’s too dark to make eye contact? The same articles emphasized reflective tape on clothing. Aside from my friend walking into the street without looking in either direction, he couldn’t have been better hidden, dressed in black, had he been in the “evasion” phase of SERE training.

These are not subltle or difficult concepts, but people have died, Soldiers and civilians, by ignoring simple principles in intersections on this installation. My Johnny Cash-dressed pedestrian friend should wise up.