In Brecht’s play, Galileo chooses an agreeable old age rather than torture and death at the hands of an outraged papacy. So he recants his finding that the Earth is round.
His disciple, Andreas, laments: “Pity the world that is without heroes.”
Galileo replies, “No, pity the world that is in need of heroes.”
People have voiced regret that lollipop man, Reg Brown, 91, is retiring. But what should sadden us, and make us seek change, is the diabolical system that makes roads dangerous in the first place. If we lived by equality instead of lived and died by priority, the onus for safety would be on the driver. Toddlers wouldn’t need to learn age-inappropriate road safety drill, and we wouldn’t “need” lollipop men and women to save children from drivers schooled in the delinquent rules of the road.
