The Green Police are running through my head!

As New Atlantis falls within the borders of the great state of Tennessee, Dr. J. did his civic duty and casted his ballot in the GOP primary today.

This morning, Dr. J. drove to the polling place in the Imperial Shuttle, which by conventional definitions would qualify as a large SUV. He saw that there were several parking places open near the polling place, a brand new LEED certified neighborhood community center paid for with his tax dollars.

After pulling into the space and firing down the hyperdrive, he saw the following sign:

Now Dr. J. figured that restarting the Shuttle would an additional time would have contributed to man-made global warning, and as far as he knew, the New Atlantis Park Service had no jurisdiction to ticket OR tow him, AND he figured that given the GOP primary was going on, there weren’t going to be any Priuses or Volts competing with him for the parking spaces (unless they were there to workout).

This is not the only example of rewarding green vehicle choices in New Atlantis. The New Atlantis Publix has a couple of charging stations near (but not nearer than handicapped) the elevators in the underground parking area for the supermarket.

In addition, the New Atlantis Veterans Hospital has added two new floors to it’s parking garage. The patients park on the 2nd and 3rd floors (the 2nd floor has a bridge to the hospital). Employees are expected to park on G, 1, 4, 5, and 6. Again, while the closest handful of parking spots are rightfully designated for handicapped individuals, on 4 and 5 at least, the remaining spots on the half of the garage closest to the stairs/elevators leading to the bridge on the 2nd floor are designated for COMPACT vehicles.

The reason for all of this is obvious. Despite the rise in gasoline costs, the greenies are losing the debate on merits. So they want to punish those who make different choices than the Progressives wish them to make. The only way they can do this is by nudging us, annoying us, and bullying us. In this case, buy making us walk a little further in the parking lot. Another example is pushing to use tax dollars to make public transportation more competitive; and to make city driving more expensive.

Americans love their cars (Millennial exceptions aside) and want to drive the cars of their choice. Dr. J. likes a large SUV because as cars have become necessarily lighter and less safe to meet CAFE standards, he feels safer driving behind the wheel of something big and substantial. He also enjoys the sight lines, the roominess, the cargo space, the handling in inclement weather and the the hauling capability. Just as Dr. J. would never foist his Imperial Shuttle on his liberal colleague, who loves his green solar powered Tie Fighter, his colleague would never want Dr. J. to be forced to fly said Tie Fighter.

Clearly, this was a rousing call to arms for Dr. J. when he cast his ballot today. He hopes this missive motivates his readers to vote early and often today, and in November!

Dr. J.