Children City - thoughts about Yom Kippur and traffic

[hadar_aviram]

The silence I was used to in Yom Kippur when spending it in quiet, rural areas, and the indifference in which the day was observed in the States, gave way to a boisterous, noisy, fast and merciless army of children who took over the streets with their bicycles and other non-motoric equipment the minute the holiday began. As if through a national children conspiracy, hordes of children invaded the streets. It was not a quieter day than usual - it was merely a different kind of traffic noise, with its own conflicts and crimes. We almost witnessed a heartless bicycle theft: two big children, apparently, slapped two smaller ones and took their bikes away (on Yom Kippur!), riding them as fast as they could and taking advantage of the lack of cars and unresponsive police. The kids had such a marvelous time (except, of course those who fell victims to such travesties) that they had a really hard time relinquishing their newly-found power over the streets to the trickling flow of cars in the evening.

A thought: perhaps we should have a day a month for bicycles, with no religious connotations, and reserve Yom Kippur as a day of peace and quiet.