Ready Ralph--Relevant in 2008

"Get em' Ralph" I heard in the ballpark and I yelled "get em' Ralph."
All my friends thought it was hilarious so I said it again and again. Again
there was laughter.

It was a few years into the anxious world of Ralph Nader with his
unbalanced safety issues on one hand and his media -driven image
of a party pooper on the other, because he had a "mindless" pursuit of safety it
appeared.

He isn't fun when he's saving lives they'd say. He shouldn't be playing with
my kids it appeared they were saying.

The scales were tilted in the weighing of behaviors we always have to
do in our own lives .Ralph, the media would say, wasn't weighing the
issues. How do you weigh safety on one side of a scale and neurotic
meddler on the other?

When we weigh in on the issue of" weighing in," we pass Ralph in
the blur of considerations that have ever occurred to us and his
contribution isn't appreciated.

It's true Ralph wouldn't necessarily be fun at a ballpark unless there
are hearings going on pertinent to the proceedings--meaning the
whiffle ball game or baseball game.

But, who really wants cars that are dangerous and unsafe and other
consumer items that can't be relied upon to meet acceptable standards?

When I was a kid we once were playing ball and I kept saying "get 'em Ralph"
and we kids thought it was hilarious. Kids knew his name and reputation
for no-nonsense and admired his reputation as a fair, honest player akin
to a star ball player. He was seen as a party pooper and a bad vibe by the
then contemporary press

He only saved THOUSANDS of lives with his dilligence and persistence.
Your cars being manufactured safer is just one example of how he helped
you, or us. That is, of course, if you're concerned about being alive.

And today, in a fog of media one-upsmanship, the fight for the "philosophy
of protecting the public" is still being fought.. And tv personalities are to my
eye as available as ever to be manipulated by others for short term gains.

"Get 'em Ralph!"