Every once in a while someone plays the fool on a football field -or in the surrounding area-, and some people are surprised. I’m surprised these things don’t happen more often.
As good human beings and to the eternal pride of our species, we idiots do it in a rigorous and constant way. I will tell you, without going any further, about the parking lot where I park the car. There it happens that all drivers use the same and only ramp to enter and exit the car park, and to avoid accidents they installed a traffic light at the beginning and another at the end of the ramp. The theory is not very complex: you press the control, the door opens and you wait for the light to turn green. If the input light is green, the output light remains red, and vice versa, thus avoiding collapses and crashes.
It seems easy, right? If the light is green, you pass. If it’s red, you wait. Preschool level: a basic rule that in theory should not lead to problems between rational adults, but apparently in practice it is too confusing for some people who go up or down with the red light, with the consequent mess. For this reason, the administrators placed a sign next to the door with images of green traffic lights and a series of phrases that were already pleas rather than orders: ‘please, don’t go up until the traffic light is green, please!!! !!’
Notice the five exclamation points. I was walking and stopped to count the exclamation marks. How serious the matter must be, how much suffering and how much pain has been generated, how desperate a decent person must be to use five exclamation points.
But not like that. That first poster was undoubtedly a discreet and logical measure, but not effective enough because little by little they were filling the access wall with new photos of traffic lights and complementary notices, that nothing is missing for the city council to protect the mural as an asset of interest. cultural, because it is already a work of conceptual art. I dare to predict that the next step to try to comply with the very complicated rule of ‘only go green’ will be to hire young people to distribute information brochures at the foot of the ramp. Afterwards, there will be an awareness campaign at bus shelters, musical ‘stories’ on Instagram and hundreds of letters in mailboxes. Another day an expert in light signaling will come to give us a talk. Nor do I rule out a demonstration to the contrary, with banners asking for ‘freedom’ for users. We will undoubtedly come out of all this better, stronger. Such a problem requires a collective and extraordinary effort.
I would say that sometimes we forget that detergent labels say “do not ingest” and that we are so trustworthy that they kindly inform us that this is not done. And when the heat arrives in summer, the emergency services insist that we seek shade and drink water, and that we do not play sports in the sun during hours of extreme temperatures, which is not done either. In the same way, at the entrances of soccer fields they remind us not to throw objects onto the field, that this is wrong, that this is not done. I would say that the mere fact that these warnings exist tells us that the human being is a fascinating subject.
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I’d say the solution seems easy, but it’ll happen again, the jerk thing. And the surprise will return, etc.