why I can't take the cycling community here seriously

So we can all agree that wearing a bike helmet is much safer than not wearing a helmet, we can all agree on a law for folks under 17 to wear helmets, we all acknowledge that helmets help prevent some serious injuries and that most people wear them... but making a regulation that you sould wear a proper safety helmet while riding a bike is some terrible infringement on life and liberty and will turn people off the sport of cycling? Whiskey tango foxtrot Mulder?

I frankly don't understand why this is such an issue or why the entire damned cycling community seems up in arms over it. This is another reason why I can't take the cycling community too seriously. They make a lot of noise about wanting bikes to be considered equal to cars and other wheeled vehicles, fine. But then half the cyclists I see don't follow traffic laws like stop signs. We have seat belt laws for our cars. Why shouldn't we have a helmet law for bicycles? I don't see seat belt laws or regulations about proper safety equipment preventing people from driving, playing football, etc. I would perhaps give them more of a nod if they were to cry "We think the city just needs money so they are looking to write us tickets!" Well, we could already make half out city budget with traffic tickets written to aforementioned cyclists who don't stop at stop signs or red lights.

I've included the text of the article below, as well as the link to the Stateman's site wher eyou have to register to read.

( article from the Statesman and link )

sometimes the world is unfair

I put my head down on my desk and cried for a good five minutes in the middle of the day. It was about a boy who died. It wasn't so awful on the scale of things because it wasn't a death by abuse unlike the two others I had this week. The child died from complications of surgery and his numerous disabilities. I cried, because it was so just horribly wrong of the universe for a ten year old to have a heart attack and die after he was finally in the care of a loving guardian who kept him safe and got him the care he needed. I kept imagining his foster mother rushing into the hospital after getting the call about his heart attack and not knowing he was gone. I pictured his caseworker, getting the call from the foster agency. I kept imagining his siblings, who have already lost their mother and all other family members learning this afternoon that their brother is never coming home. I wonder about the reaction of the biological mother, or if the caseworker can even find her to tell her. It hit me so hard, right smack out of the blue.