Idiot of the Week: Governor Jon Corzine

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Usually the Idiot of the Week award goes to someone who is unquestionably idiotic and does something indefensible. This week, I’m sticking the Idiot of the Week title on someone who is breathing with the help of a respirator in a hospital in Camden, New Jersey (I don’t know what’s worse: breathing with a respirator or spending more than a week in Camden, New Jersey). This week’s idiot is New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.

But Chris! That’s not fair! You can’t possibly call someone in his condition an idiot!

Yes, I can.

This is the year 2007. I think decades of use, mounds of indisputable scientific evidence, and thousands – possibly millions - of saved lives make it pretty clear that YOU SHOULD WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT.

Maybe I hang with a smart crowd, but I don’t know a single person who doesn’t wear a seat belt, except possibly when in the back seat of a cab in New York City, where it’s considered a faux pas to get into a cab and put on a seat belt (and perhaps an insult to the driver ability to navigate the city streets safely? I don’t understand this logic, because 50% of the time that I’m in a cab, I need to hold on to something as my life flashes before my eyes). My first instinct whenever I get into a car is to put on my seat belt. This is how I was raised. And any parent who didn’t drive that home to their child in the age of seat belts is… just a terrible parent.

Now, it was a little different to not put on your seat belt back in the 80s, before mandatory restraint laws really started to take off. But today, in 49 states, if you don’t wear your seat belt, YOU ARE BREAKING THE LAW.

Which brings us back to Governor Corzine, the highest-ranking official in state government in one of those 49 states, who was conducting official state business in an official state vehicle, and, at the same time, was breaking the law. That’s some real leadership he was showing.

I used to think that seat belts were a means of natural selection: small children aside, people who died in an accident because they were too stupid to understand the benefits of wearing a seat belt were probably doing society a favor, because they couldn’t have been that bright to begin with. But when I learn that a man who holds an M.B.A. from University of Chicago, goes on to make millions as a bond trader, and serves in two prestigious public offices in state and Federal government voluntarily chooses not to wear a seat belt, it messes with my perception of just who exactly is an idiot. Now, I’m left to wonder how many other well-educated, highly-respected public officials don’t wear a seat belt.

So, Governor Corzine, I honestly wish you a speedy recovery, as I wouldn’t wish death upon anyone. But I hope you take your Idiot of the Week award to heart when you strap on your seat belt for the trip back to the state house, and wonder why a full week in intensive care had to be your “wake up call.”

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