Helmets Life Or Liberty Analysis

SUMMARY: An unknown author in the essay, Helmets: Life or Liberty? , published in November 2001, addresses the topic of whether wearing helmets should be an individual’s decision to make or whether it should be enforced by the law. The author claims that while it should be a person’s decision to wear a helmet or not, it is essential that they do so for safety reasons and not be persuaded not to because it is deemed “uncool” by society. The author supports their claim first by creating an emotional bridge between the readers and providing several scenarios in which people have experienced the consequences of not wearing helmets. Second by, establishing their credibility as a writer; the author utilizes the Rogerian model to assist and facilitate

, establishes their credibility as a writer, because they present an extensive amount of evidence when presenting their own perspective as well as the opposing side’s perspective. The essay follows the Rogerian model which is a diplomatic mode of argumentation that explores and validates the opposing side 's perspective. In the essay the author states the problem; that many argue against wearing helmets in extreme sports such as snowboarding because they want to experience the maximum rush of the sport without the disturbance of a “nerdy” helmet. In the fourth paragraph of the essay, the author provides the opposing side’s perspective, “A more credible drawback to wearing helmets that has been presented is vision impairment, along with the lack of comfort helmets have been known to cause in the past” (Helmets: Life or Liberty?). The author then offers limits to this argument by presenting an incident in where a snowboarder was skiing down a mountain slope without a helmet, when he crashed into a tree and now is in a vegetative state. By embedding this scenario the author is only further proving their point, that without the use of helmets the risk of head trauma is greater. Finally, the essay concludes by restating the problem and explaining why helmets should be used, “The benefits of wearing head protection while resort skiing or snowboarding greatly outweigh the disadvantages, so such protective headgear should be required by all

I feel very passionate about this topic, because of an incident that occurred about four years ago. A friend of my sisters was a week away from graduating high school, when he was skateboarding down Highway 74 without a helmet. He lost control of the skateboard and tumbled down the highway, suffering major head trauma. To make a long story short, he was in a coma and his parents made the difficult decision of taking him off life support. He had his whole life ahead of him and within the blink of an eye it was all gone, and because of this incident I understand the importance of the use of helmets. The author did not change my point of view; however, was an excellent example of why the use of helmets should be a requirement in resorts where extreme sports are practiced, as well as in everyday sports. It has been over 15 years since this essay was published, however, there are still many who neglect to use helmets in 2016, therefore this essay still has relevance to this