Anger over the crushing of a '59 Chevy Bel Air matches the passion over a gun buyback in Tucson (home of the Gabby Giffords shooting).
The two-tone 1959 Bel
Air,with Stovebolt Six and Powerglide, shortly before it met an
untimely death in a safety-related crash test. (Photo: IIHS)
Do you pat your car’s fender after
putting it away in the garage? Do you give it a name? Do you call it
“he” or “she”? If so, you’re not alone — millions of otherwise normal
Americans treat their inanimate cars as if they were alive. Why else the
outrage when all those EV-1s got crushed in "Who Killed the Electric
Car?"
I’m not reporting this from some high cliff of superiority — I do
it too. When I scrape my car’s paint, it’s as if it is feeling actual
physical pain. Why do we do this? Frankly, it’s complicated. The
ownership of an automobile (and especially a classic with a long
history) is intertwined with all the emotional experiences we’ve had in
it, from a first kiss to the drive to the hospital when baby’s due. You
can’t just send it to the crusher without a second thought, but you also
have to put it in clear perspective — it’s not alive!
Understanding the emotional attachment people develop toward
firearms is a bit harder for me, but it’s obviously there for millions
of Americans.
I was reminded of this whole phenomenon this week by two unrelated incidents. In the first, Bob Palma, a columnist for Hemmings Classic Car,
is moved to rage by an insurance institute’s crashing of a 1959
Chevrolet Bel Air (Stovebolt Six and Powerglide, if you were wondering).
Here’s the gory video: (Viewer discretion is advised.)
Now, the point here is that cars of that era were not very safe,
and that’s underscored by the Bel Air’s total annihilation at the hands
of a 2009 Malibu. In real life the impact would have killed the
occupants in the old Chevy, cute as it is. The Malibu driver, in an
intact passenger cabin, with advanced safety protection, could probably
have walked away. The fatality rate in crashes of that era — with no
crumple zones, seat belts, breakaway steering columns or airbags — was
much higher. That’s why the death toll hasn’t gone up (much) despite a
vast increase in vehicle miles traveled. As Consumer Reports pointed out,
the crash test “shows just how far passenger protection has come in the
last 50 years.” But the columnist (writing in the March 2013 issue,
though the Bel Air went to glory in 2009) completely misses the point,
instead bemoaning the sad fate of that two-tone classic car.
“That Bel Air was a well-preserved original car,” wrote Palma, who’d actually inspected it in Arizona before it was sold to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
for $8,500. “That bat-wing sweetheart had survived five decades, only
to suffer five seconds of intentional — not accidental — destruction in a
vain, senseless act.” Palma wrote the IIHS a “terse” two-page letter
condemning the crash test as “grandstanding” that was “foolish” and
“irresponsible.”
Readers of a New York Times column on the crash test were
similarly incensed. “What a waste of a nice ’59 Chevy Belair!” says
one. “What a waste of a sweet Bel Air,” adds another. “Nice whitewalls.”
I'm recalling similar grief over the hugely successful Cash for
Clunkers program ("they crushed a perfectly good 1964 Le Mans!"). As
much as classic car owners (and I'm one) don't want to admit it, their
shiny beasts are often big polluters, minus catalytic converters and
other emissions equipment.
Photo: Steve Rhodes/Flickr
At least some of us (not me) are similarly fetishistic about guns. That’s demonstrated clearly in a column written by Steve Kozachik,
vice mayor and City Council member in Tucson, Ariz., (scene of the
Gabby Giffords shooting). He led a local gun buyback program (turn your
weapon in to the police and get a $50 grocery coupon) that met with a
furious reaction.
“The response made it clear the event I was planning hit a nerve
among a group who evidently believe the proper disposal of a firearm is
tantamount to the desecration of a holy icon,” said Kozachik, who has
recently switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat in
protest of the party’s position on guns.
“Guns are not fetish objects,” Kozachik wrote. But they obviously
are for people who hate the idea of perfectly good rifles and pistols
going out of circulation. Being killed, as it were.
I’m not advocating the crushing of all classic cars or the melting
down of every gun. I’m just sayin’. Perhaps we’re getting a bit too
emotionally attached to these man-made objects. If it would save one
kid’s life, taking some deadly weapons out of circulation isn’t that big
a price to pay. If it would stop one horrific fatal crash and teach us
more about safety, saying R.I.P. to some antique car survivors is
perfectly justified.
