Gay Byrne - The Challenge.......What about Mentality?

national | crime and justice | opinion/analysis

Sunday May 07, 2006 19:34

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice, Ethics

Quotation: Fr. John Powell
'A growing person is self-renewing.......as new as each new day....Study his face and hands, listen to his voice....look for change.....It is certain that he has changed.

'To tell you my thoughts is to locate myself in a category. To tell you about my feelings is to tell you about me'...............Have we lost this capacity to share feelings!!!!!!

Irish Association for Suicidology: Recently heard that they now identify motor accident deaths that
by Michelle Clarke - Social Inclusion; understanding and compassion Sun May 7 18:20:02 2006
are suicide related.

The method of death has been acknolwedged in the US and in Europe but for some reason in Ireland, the secrecy, the shame, the danger to others, the hindrance to inclusive research has been denied.

No doubt the reasons are there!!!! We ought to ask the question why we even have a limit on alcohol consumed......it ought to be none......but then one must think of Government coffers and the Corporates.......

I was delighted to hear Gay Bryne has entered the fray......As a man who can spend a retirement enjoying the pleasure of a Harley Davidson bike, I think people will listen to what he has to say. Experience is out of fashion presently but communication remains, and this is Mr. Byrne's art form.

Gay Byrne and his team are into suggestions, ideas, options, global trends and patterns also. This is healthy.

There is one point I would like to suggest.....
I take psychiatric medications now so I am not allowed to drive....but the question I ask is the 'mentality' of people driving'. The issue ought not to be Driving education at school as young as possible but there ought to be a pre-leaving cert dual approach to mentality i.e. covering mental heallth, mood disorder, alcohol, the recent reports from St. Patricks about binge drinking and the link to suicide.

I sustained brain injury in an accident....it is known as one of the silent epidemics. The hard part about it is that if regions affected in your brain are say comprehension; relativity, aphasia.....you can't convey to the people exactly where you are at. Worse, it takes you years to get the words to describe the losses.

Relativity is a word. It doesn't matter much when you are not out of synch with the general trend. However, if like me, circadium rhthym gone, no idea winter or summer, hungry or not, it does. It has to be a key part of my comprehension, in my one dimensional focus, otherwise my life is chaos....I lose my bag, my money, my checque cards, I see the green light for traffic as red and it goes on.....an on....until you get to the stage that you take control and you pace to the limited few thinks you can do in a day.......and you take rest.

Now back to mentality and driving. Stress, anxiety, distress, alcohol, drugs, anger.....surely we all can be honest enough and say that in a moment of anger, the car has had the exhilaration factor that forces us to maybe take a chance........

Mentality is something we need to learn about in younger years. In fact, i hear philosophy is becoming popular again England, maybe there ihere is a message here.........

15 years ago, I went to Florida and hired a car. I recall a kind of brick behind the accelator to stop cars exceeding the limit. I now here is Sweden there is a computerised gadget that tells you speed limits etc. These are practical but mentality is crucial.

The formation of an underclass and social exclusion are factors that need to be addressed,

Has anyone watched 'Read Write Now'. Professor Ian Richards and others provide a half hour screening assisting people using the visual, the sensual and other memory sources how to learn to read......

I would like to see a more pscyhologically driven road practice programme based on his expertise from the Neuro-psychology department in Trinity. Remove the fear element is a good start.

I have said too much no doubt but 2 more initiatives from the Samaritans.

The sale of dog tags with the Samaritans Number

Their research finding that in Ireland under 25's predominantly use the text. Now they have a 24 hour a day text service....This is well worth promoting.

I always end with a quotation

Martin Luther King Jr.
'Unless we learn to live as brothers, we will die together as fools"

save preference

Comments (5 of 5)

I'm into mentality too says JR; even a bit of philosophy

by Jack Russell - Philosophy

Mon May 08, 2006 13:54

What an unexpected Sunday yesterday. It is hard to imagine somebody for no apparent reason taking a bus and basically going joy riding. The Gardai must be commended for the way they dealt with this most unpredictable adventure. The loss of life is very sad for all concerned particularly, the woman's who died daughter, who was in the car at time......and so many more and the Gardai too.

All we can ask is Why?

Jack Russell

Accidents, young people dead, children dead...Blame, Scoring points

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics

Wed Jul 12, 2006 22:11

Noticed a headline in the newspapers today seeking Gay Byrne's retirement......He has failed.....or he is the person we can all blame. Why as a nation are we so dependent on blame?

Fear......of loss. The more we hear about these accidents, the more we fear that we will know the fatalities.......Yet there is nothing constructive done?

Fear...the all encompassing word. We need it so we react and yet it can lead to our destruction.

Years ago, given a time limit from Capel Street to Limerick City, I recall the fear associated with being in Kildare on the long stretch of road behind a bus or a truck.......I am sure I assessed risk then in a less cautious way. Then Fear was not a word I would have considered about driving. Remember, Employers still set these time limits.

The car gave me that sense of power, the model, the year, the sense of relief when I passed the truck in the rain; then there was the fear on the roads that became dirt roads in Zimbabwe. The smoke that emanated from buses that total obscured the view and forced the driver to take chances......You could take chances there.......The Police system (corrupt) and under-staffed, left the opportunities wide open. There were awful accidents there too.

Minister Cullen is puttng it to the people to be responsible. In ways, I can see his point because a Nanny State with a multitude of unenforceable laws justs breeds chancers, thosed who are basically human but ego driven. Multitudes of these laws attach to the name of the ministre and ensure his name for posterity.

We need to educate. I did take chances but I know more chances were taken by the people who were driving me. In the end in Zimbabwe, the fear really resurrected, when I was driven by others. I couldn't see why they could not identify with my fears and concern for breaking the law (particularly drinking and driving).

In the end, i think that my childhood experience living in the country with both parents as dispensary doctors and the awful car smashes that happened then. This was before they staggered the crossroads at Ross Cross - the intersection between Slane main raod and Navan Road.......Then the cars had glass windscreens and there also were many fatalities..........I think it is this memory that brought the fear to mind.......The country roads became rat runs for trucks......also.

Folklore in the country also indicates locations, fears, happenings. There is an area known as Soldier Hill on the Navan to Dublin Road. There is a hill and then a staggered cross roads known as Garlow Cross. As a child, I used to hear the older people speak ot earlier times when a lot of Soldiers died there. The inference was ill-luck. There were many fatalities here over the years. I think it is near here that a young Garda from the West of Ireland was involved in an accident in which two horses died also.

I think it is early days for people to call for Gay Byrne's resignation. Gay with his love of bikes........must know the exhilaration speed gives and the need to take responsibility as Minister Cullen suggests.

We have new laws about the mobile phone and driving and I welcome them. However, I cannot understand why people don't think the issue through and be responsible.

I sustained acquired brain injury in a riding accident and am one dimensional......I can't complete two things at the same time, in fact I can scarely remember each time how the mobile works. I find it hard to get people to understand but all I can is if there was more compassion, understanding etc, then responsibility would flow. Who wants a head injury....take it from me it makes your life purposeless?

One last point. The car, people sharing it, a little inebriated and a selection of mood altering music......surely this deserves attention.

Is it not time to introduce some philosophy to develop thinking in secondary school or maybe some psycholgy?

Michelle

Quotation: The Quest Leo Tostoy (1828-1920)
'Without knowing who I am and why I am life is impossible'

And yet the road carnage continues....Why?

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and inclusion

Sat Dec 09, 2006 01:54

I wrote the above article about mentality which I believe plays a critical role particularly for young driver, men.

Mentality is about acquiring an attitude that states that guidelines are there to be observed and wasting state money with randam sampling for drinks drugs etc. confirms what are otherwise responsible people, to a route of crime building and temptations of corruption.

I state again about state of mind......we now know that 25% of these car accidents are suicidal..........It is up to people who feel slightly depressed not to place temptation in your way.............The cost factor is way to high, to those who love you, family and friends.........Try a good book instead and look for some words of hope is something I find quite good.

Michelle

Rating of Events (both negative and postive) Host Joe Duffy

by Kevin Russell - Social inclusion and Justice

Wed Jan 03, 2007 02:53

Greatly en joyed the programme tonight on RTE hosted by Joe Duff6y.......and particularly the placing of the hospitals in a negative sportline re, the MRSA........

However, the concentration on Road Traffic Acts and Random Police testing appears to have impeded some from engage in drinking and driving and well done to those who enaged with the laws of the land and regulated their drinking procedure. It is never too high a cost. I believe.

I noted from the Irish Association of Suicidology that inquests are looking at a clearer level of motive where young men (who often can have this self destruct feeling when driving and particular at speeds). IASP claim that 25% of such road death are in fact sucidology and as pointed out by others on the show.........this is a mentality isssue that is not being recognised.

I really enjoyed the Indian woman with her mesage about 'being loved'......the society often forgets to becaring and loving.

Quotation

About driving cars at at speed and recklessly p try thinking of the enviornment..........

War
'When the rich wage war, it's the poor whor die.........'
Jean Paul Sartre, French writer and Philosopher

Mentality of the people is about an attitude or frame of mind.....The question is can it be changed.........even for environment safety.

Michelle Clarke

Communication; the Art of Listening and Reply......Why have we lost this?

Mon Feb 11, 2008 20:11

It was nice to see Gay Byrne sitting in a jovial way with a group of girls at school at St. Brigid's in Haddington Road, Dublin 4.

Gay Byrne's gift over the decades on radio and TV has been the art of true conversation.

I had hoped that his experience would be the impetus that the public sectors related to road traffic casualties, accidents, deaths, education mark the changing point in the tragedy on Irish Roads.

I am not surprised that effective communication was the problem he encountered.......take it from me just a person with long term ill-health, it is not worth your time Mr. Byrne, the mentality in Ireland particularly in safe positions like the Civil Service etc. predominates.......they will say what they want but they don't listen. They only communicate as they determine. They now have the label 'intellectual disabilities'......so that the name catches you and you forget what you want.

Driving it must be remembered can be a form of self-harm if you are in a certain frame of mind...a...this can be a row with the wife, or just tired of life and the sad song on the radio helps you put your foot on the pedal.

There is nothing like experience.....to learn from.....Listening is an art....Watch all the people that wait for you to say the first few words and then jump in, not listening and finishing your sentence with their thoughts and words.

We need to learn.......

Gandhi
'Live as if you are going to die tomorrow, and learn as if you are going to live for the rest of your wife'

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Gay Byrne - The Challenge.......What about Mentality?

Comments (5 of 5)