Columnist Susan Snyder: From here, the views were good

Friday, Sept. 23, 2005 | 6:30 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

WEEKEND EDITION

Sept. 24-25, 2005

This is the last "Valley Views."

But hold off trotting out "Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead." I am taking my broomstick and joining the Las Vegas Sun editorial board, where I will write editorials for the new Sun, which launches next Sunday.

I'll still make some of you angry. You just won't know when it's me.

Neener.

Some of you will miss this column like a bad marriage. Others will miss it because they now will have to find someone else's voice mail to bombard on Sunday nights (when they know they can talk uninterrupted for four minutes without having to breathe).

Still others will simply miss the updates on The Cat.

No one will miss the bad jokes.

A few, like my mommy, might actually miss the stories and commentary that I hoped would make people think. People who think, act. And action empowers a community.

I had hoped to show the choices we are making and compare them to the ones we could make, if we wanted to. It's the reason public safety issues arose so often.

Traffic crashes and tie-ups probably affect more residents on a daily basis than anything else in the Las Vegas Valley. And whether they happen is totally dependent on the choices we make as individuals.

Roads and rush hour don't cause crashes. Boats don't cause people to drown. Walking down the sidewalk or waiting in a bus shelter isn't inherently dangerous.

As individuals, we have choices. And somehow that isn't always clear in the public discourse. We hear about road conditions and design. We hear about the depth of the lake. We hear about bus shelters being too close to the roads.

It takes a while before we hear that a motorist was driving too fast or too sleepy or wasn't wearing a seat belt. We don't ask whether a dead bicyclist wasn't wearing a helmet or using a light at night. We rarely ask whether everyone on the boat was wearing a life jacket.

We question these choices when a stranger dies. But when it's our turn we stuff the life jacket under the seat because wearing it looks stupid.

Nobody's perfect. But these kinds of choices are perfectly easy to make. And making them every time will keep you far safer on a daily basis than that gated community with the armed guard.

Individual choices ordinary citizens make every day have a far bigger impact on the community's lifestyle than anything politicians do. We are more likely to die from someone choosing to run a red light than from living next to a Wal-Mart or a pig farm.

I hoped to show the opportunities we have to choose something different.

We could choose to visit a seemingly vacant Nevada mining town on a weekend. We could choose to park the car and ride the bus for a week. We could choose to see the world through the eyes of someone who doesn't look or live like we do.

We could choose to be more tolerant, more considerate and more open to the idea that someone who isn't famous or politically connected can make a difference.

I'll miss the discussions with readers who shared their views and sometimes changed mine. I'll miss the letters and phone calls -- including the nasty ones.

I won't miss that column picture.

The Cat, however, is going to miss the e-mail.

So don't forget to write.

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