Michelle, I promise when I’m up there (you’re in Portland, right?) we’ll come by and take a ride in your cab. We have some family up there, and one of our sites (for work) is in Seattle. I went up there a couple times in the last year but didn’t bring the family. We determined, tho, that next time, I bring the family for some vacation time buffeted by work so I can show them the Space Needle, the science museum thing, the kids music discovery place thingy, etc.

Ren, I’m glad the above Michelle, a cab driver, is no longer a stranger! That would be double bad, because then she’d be hit with the kidnapping stat and the auto accident stat. I was just discussing that this morning with Caitlin (our 13yr old) – about the risks we take as Americans. For example, 40,000 die per year in auto accidents, yet we still choose to use cars. But I can agree in general about the wariness of strangers and how it can contribute to non-friendly environment. I’d rather just teach self-defense and a super-aware mind so that if things become suspicious, they’d recognize it instead of stamping a generalist “strangers are bad” assumption. But how are kids to know the difference between the innocent and friendly “hey kid, what’s your name?” and the potentially malicious “hey kid, are your parents home?” followed up with “hey kid, my doggie is lost, can you help me find him? I have a van here and we can search the neighborhood together. His name is scruffy and he looooves kids!”

Ren, it’s the whole ‘telling your name to strangers’ thing when you’re a kid. Unless I’m wrong.

Other than the more generic “don’t talk to strangers” I am not familiar with a meme about not telling your name to strangers. I don’t see any logic to it — but I’m not a fan of the “don’t talk to strangers” concept in the first place. I truly believe that it does more harm than good by instilling a non-friendly environment. On the other hand, advice like “don’t take a ride with a stranger” is a different story and, in my opinion sound. Even then, though, the actual risk is vanishingly small — about 300 child kidnappings occur per year (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0838/is_n71/ai_15257083). There are nearly five times as many children killed in automobile accidents each year (http://0-www.cdc.gov.mill1.sjlibrary.org/ncipc/factsheets/childpas.htm).

Ren, it’s the whole ‘telling your name to strangers’ thing when you’re a kid. Unless I’m wrong.