Accept or fight? Talk or punish?

I heard about work on a statutory ban on car races on city streets and on riding quads in places where someone does not want it. The details are not important, only the direction of thinking, which in my view is misguided and permeated by fear—not for the citizen’s safety, but for power. Such decisions by the authorities are marked by the lack of foresight common to small-minded people who should never even manage a RUCH kiosk.

What does such a ban lead to? A growing lack of trust in the authorities. Why? Because the problem is not discussed with the people whom the ban will affect; decisions are made arbitrarily. Heavy goods vehicles are not discussed with drivers and owners, police officers are not consulted with ordinary officers, and the examples could go on.

So I ask: where do these ideas for bans come from? They are ideas of so-called politicians who experience an epiphany at election time and, after the elections, turn their declarations into “knowledge” about everything and decide that they no longer need to ask anyone about anything.

A ban on riding quads or doing “donuts” will not disappear when laws banning and punishing drivers are passed. If such a large number of young people, and not only young people, want to do this, then conditions must be created for them to do it and a compromise must be proposed to them.

The state prefers to create criminals

Let young people establish clubs, create rules and oversee them. Let them create safety regulations. The state prefers to create criminals and people who hate their country. I myself have met young enthusiasts of quad riding. It is simple to arrange and they can be helped. Yet the authorities think it is easier to ban something and produce a new kind of criminal. How many stubborn people who were once persecuted have helped turn their passions into respected types of sport, including Olympic sports? But it is better to proudly straighten a ministerial tie and turn a passionate young person into an ordinary criminal!

I do not want to be misunderstood, but the Polish state would rather have more sticks to wield against society than listen to it. Proud MPs and senior officials, listen to your children, grandchildren and their friends. Listen to what they want. Instead of surrounding yourselves with bodyguards, go out to the people—not to flatterers and lobbyists. Go out to ordinary people.

The needs of ordinary people differ greatly from what you do on Wiejska Street. Fighting society has never ended well for those in power. This is where history bows, which you are also dangerously doing donuts with, for example by trying to turn mediocrities into heroes.

Perhaps it is time to close the parliamentary restaurant and open a milk bar; farmers would then have a market for their agricultural produce, which in turn would reduce their grievances against the world. “I’m waiting... for the wind to disperse...”