The Canadian sprinter beat American favorite, Carl Lewis, in an incredibly emotional 100-meter sprint – only to have the medal taken away when he tested positive for anabolic steroids. Adding insult to injury, research completed years later indicated that rival Lewis was just as likely boosting his performance with the same substance.

Hey… interesting debate going on. Helmet laws…

There are two sides to the debate. Are we allowing the government to dictate to us how we should live our lives and by doing so are we allowing the government to take over our lives? Or is this just one way the government is making us live a little longer by making us safer when we ride?

By requiring two wheeled riders to wear a helmet, is the government eroding our personal freedoms?

As a very good friend of mine. Mr. Brian Hall, said, “Personal freedoms, and their erosions are an issue; however, not in this case. A “riders choice” to not wear a helmet can and does affect the rest of us.”

Case in point:

Personal side to helmet debate

August 19, 2008

I read with great interest your opinions in the Aug. 17 edition of the Chicago Tribune on the motorcycle helmet law in Illinois (“To don or not? A legal question,” Perspective). Let me share with you both the story of my colleague and friend, Greg Bowman.

I got to know Greg as a colleague in the Illinois State Bar Association. Via email, we struck up a friendship and then after meeting in person, he invited me to work on some cases with him. We became good friends in addition to our work together and in April 2007 conducted a trial as co-counsel, which we learned in June of that year that we had won (an improbable win because of the case).

Greg had a lovely wife and six children that ranged from the ages of 10 ? 24. He had begun life as a farmer then went to law school when farming became difficult in the 1980s. He was also an avid motorcycle rider and a volunteer with the Patriot Guard Riders (http://www.patriotguard.org/).

While continuing to work on other cases, I got an e-mail one Monday morning that gave me the sad news that Greg had died in a motorcycle accident. Knowing Greg well and that he frequently went on long motorcycle trips and was very skilled at riding, I first assumed someone had hit him. Then I learned that he died on a stretch of road south of Galena that seems deceptively straight, but makes a turn and can catch even the most skilled riders off guard.

Still, I wondered how this could happen to my friend. How could someone, who would possibly become my partner in a law firm, die off so quickly and young? Then I learned that, contrary to every time I had ever seen him ride, he decided to ride home to Princeton from Galena without his helmet on. I had never known him to ride without his helmet. His wife told me that he almost never rode without a helmet. And even though he missed the turn on his ride home, the helmet would have saved his life. Instead, he died alone on that road home from Galena until a local policeman on a routine drive by that area found him.

Greg left behind his wife and six kids (three of whom were still minors) his parents, his in-laws, three brothers and their families. He also left behind his law practice, which didn’t provide much remaining revenue for his family. He also left behind many friends who felt the cruelty of an early death because of a helmetless ride.

When anyone debates the helmet law in Illinois or when I see folks riding motorcycles without helmets, I think of my friend Greg. You can debate the legal sides of it all day and all night, but what gets lost in that debate is the impact on the family and friends by a preventable death; the death of a motorcycle rider that could have been prevented by wearing a helmet.

Is freedom really worth that kind of loss? In this one person’s opinion, it isn’t.

–Robert C. (“TJ”) Thurston

Thurston Law Offices, P.C.

Huntley, Ill.

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and one more…

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Grieving relatives of a Tracy man killed last week in a motorcycle accident dispute assertions made by the CHP, such as a claim that he wore no helmet.

Relatives of a Tracy man who died last week in a motorcycle accident remembered him as a man who loved life and had a soft spot for animals, and they’re hurt that authorities portrayed him as reckless on his Harley Davidson when he crashed.

The California Highway Patrol reported that last Friday at about 1:55 a.m., David James, 47, lost control of his bike on a curve on Camino Tassajara between Dublin and Danville. He was thrown from his 2004 Harley at about 65 mph into a pole and a well pump before he landed against a building. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

But what adds pain to his already distraught mother, sister, wife Rene James and friends is that fact that the CHP reported he wore no helmet.

He did wear a helmet, they insist, and it was lying with a hole in it on the ground at the crash site with all his other belongings, which some of his friends and relatives cleaned up the day after the crash.

James’ family suspects he might have fallen asleep on the bike. But they say, too, he was an animal lover who would have swerved to avoid hitting a deer. The CHP said the curve in the road is posted at 40 mph, but his sister Lori Veitenheimer of Spokane, Wash., said he could have taken that turn safety at the speed he was traveling when he crashed.

It was a road he knew well, said his mother, Mary James.

His relatives said he was returning from the home of a friend and former co-worker, Chuck Jackson, 54, of Danville. The two hung out together that night, smoked a cigar or two and watched the Olympics, Jackson said.

Jackson worked with James for years at Pitney Bowes in Oakland, a large manufacturer of mailing machines and postage meters. James was a customer service manager there, and the people he used to work with took the news of his death pretty hard, his friend said.

“He was always volunteering to help people,” said Jackson, 54.

He moved to Tracy after his mother did 13 years ago and worked in construction before a devastating fall from a three-story building in 2000, when he broke 22 bones and spent three months in the hospital.

“They told him he’d be disabled for life,” his mother said.

But he slowly recovered, learned how to walk again, and began to put his life back together. “He did things they said he’d never do again,” she said.

Working full time wasn’t one of them, though. His back was in constant pain, and though he liked to work with his hands and tinkered with woodworking, tile, and other crafts, he could only work in short spurts at a time and had been on disability since his fall, his mother said.

His injuries made him an especially cautious motorcycle rider, said his mother, rather than an irresponsible one.

“David would never be careless on a bike,” Mary James said.

His relatives said he spent much of his time in recent years nursing animals he rescued from the streets, feeding kittens by hand with an eyedropper until they grew strong enough to feed themselves. His home had six cats, a dog and a horse.

“He was just a good person,” Jackson said. “It’s a tough loss.

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It’s funny how this debate goes on and on. And it’s just that; a debate. In many ways I am glad that there are laws that require things like helmets and seat belts. Yet I empathize with those who feel their freedoms are being infringed upon.

I also hear the lamenting voices of those left behind by someone who could have prevented their families grief by obeying the laws of self preservation. And I hear the righteous indignation of those who are now required to “pay the freight” for those who are injured and cannot care for themselves.

Is it the government trying to take control of your freedoms? Or is it common sense law issued for those who don’t have any common sense?

Please; always wear a helmet and make sure it’s fastened correctly when you ride any two wheeled vehicle.

Loosing one’s life cannot be compared to losing a gold medal. Remember; they don’t play the “Star Spangled Banner” when you’re on the “podium of finality”.

Until next week…