With my love of politics, I should blog about Sarah Palin’s rivoting speech tonight at the Republican Convention. However, I feel I need more time to let Governor Palin’s words seep in before issuing a critique. Let’s just say that I’m glad to see someone else step up and confront Barack Obama head-on.
Instead, I thought tonight I would lighten the mood a bit and discuss something that has been on my mind for a while. Escalators!
Yes, on this historical night, I choose to talk about escalators over politics. After all, though I may not agree with his fascist politics, I can understand Barack Obama. He’s a college student that never grew up, something I tried to do until I turned 27. However, I still cannot understand the point in moving stairs.
In order to get from my parking garage to my office building, I have to use at least two sets of escalators, and three if I choose to get breakfast on the way to work. I’m a fast paced guy who doesn’t like wasting time in transit. If I have some place to be, I want to get there as quickly as possible. Ironically, it is this apparatus invented to ease movement, that hiniders mine and slows me down.
First, no matter where I am, if I get on an escalator, I get behind people who refuse to move faster than the stairs. They seem content to move at the snail’s pace escalators are designed to transport us and no matter how hurried I may look, how loud I may huff and puff, these people aren’t going to move an inch faster than the stairs will allow.
This brings me back to my original question. Why do we need escalators?
Would it not make more sense, and be far more healthy, to have stationary stairs instead of escalators? In this litigious age of the Americans With Disabilities Act, almost all of our buildings and public places are designed either with elevators or other means for handicaped individuals to move around a particular area. Anyone physically unable to use stairs would have an alternative and even the extremely lazy would have a way out of burning calories, but for those of us who like to buy a cup of coffee on the walk to work and get to our desks before that cup gets cold, the path would be free of at least one obstacle.
Seriously, is there something I missing with escalators?