Driving While Politicking

February 26, 2022

 

There was a measure before the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to ban meeting by videoconference while driving. Seemed reasonable to me, but apparently I’m not as deep a thinker as some of the aldermen.

Some members said it was a common-sense safety measure; some members said it was a way to take away an alderman’s right to vote. While most (but not all) White members voted to ban videoconferencing while driving, most (but not all) Black members voted to allow it, saying that the measure was racist, because it targeted Black members with families “who don’t just sit at home all day.” (That’s where the deep thinking comes in: Safety is now a conspiracy theory.)

Question: Before videoconferencing, did you not have to schedule time for these board meetings? Presumably, you weren’t driving your family around then, you were at the meeting. So what’s different now?

 

I vote that they start meeting in person again, before somebody gets clobbered by a distracted alderman who is supposedly looking out for the citizens of St. Louis.