So, I work in downtown Phoenix and a little while ago I walked across the street for a pick-me-up. I have to walk across three lanes of traffic and also the lightrail tracks to get to the little store I go to.

I rarely go to the crosswalk and wait for the little green man to appear. I usually just make a judgment about safety and cross in the middle of the street.

What was funny about this morning is that on my way back across the street I didn't wait for the little green man, as usual, but I was standing fairly close to the crosswalk so it would seem as if I was crossing normally. Remember, the red hand is up indicating DO NOT CROSS but I went anyway 'cause I'm a big boy and I make my own decisions, right?

Well, a lady who was busy staring at her phone on the other side of the street noticed me walking across and took that as a sign that it was safe to go. Yeah... not so much.

I had just enough time to get across the street before the Toyota Tacoma heading down central would get to the crosswalk, but this lady definitely didn't have enough time. I couldn't believe it when I saw her step off the curb. Of course there was a screeching of brakes, horn honking, and the bitter taste of adrenaline.

What's crazy is that after the lady jumped back onto the curb she looked right at me as if it was my fault. And that's when it hit me about responsibility.

This was a grown ass woman in a business suit. Surely she understood the dangers of crossing a busy street in downtown phoenix. Surely she understood the rules of the little green man vs. the red hand. But in this moment, preoccupied as she was with whatever was on her phone, she did not look both ways before crossing and she did not check the sign to see if it was safe. Instead, she saw me and concluded that I must know what I'm doing so why shouldn't she do the same thing?

Well, that's stupid. That's her fault. If she had gotten run over it would not be my mistake and I would not feel guilty about it.

But, what if I'm a father? What if I'm a father and my child, barely old enough to walk, has placed 100% of their trust in me to keep them safe?

Say, then, that I always hold my child's hand when we cross the street. I don't teach my child to look both ways before crossing and I don't teach my child to read the walk/no walk sign or how to interpret the symbols. Instead, I just walk when I feel like walking and I drag them along with me knowing they won't let go of my hand.

When they're older, too old to hold my hand, how will they cross the street?

Are they likely to stand on the curb and reason out the situation? Will they see a correlation between the symbols on the walk/no walk sign and the fact that cars are stopped? Will they reason that when a car is barreling down the street they should stay safely on the curb?

More than likely, they'll just watch to see what other people do since that's what they were taught. And if they see someone walking across the crosswalk they are likely to step off the curb, even if a Toyota Tacoma is charging through the intersection.

So yeah, maybe us mormon kids were never taught how to cross the street. Maybe we learned to imitate those around us and we got so good at it that it seemed like we knew what we were doing. But eventually, most of us had that wake up moment when we almost got run over by a Toyota Tacoma.

And that's why we're here..

Wow! That brought back memories of my dad. He taught me that exact lesson about crossing the street as a kid. I remember him screaming at me once when I just walked across the street in front of our house. He sat me down and gave me a long lecture about taking responsibility for my own safety and never walking across the street without looking for myself even if he was there right beside me.

Too bad Dad never made the analogy to other walks of life. I might not have followed my otherwise intelligent mother into Mormonism.

Thanks for the story Kolobian.

Adults aren't always fully responsible either. Most people don't know a thing about mormomism, they assume it's just another denomination of Christianity.

So, when someone is given the discussions, they are not being given the full story. There is a lack of disclosure and there is lying. So for adults, it would be like a guy wearing a white shirt and backpack holding up a picture of the walk symbol over the stop symbol.

Unfortunately humans have some herd instincts. If we are not paying attention we will start to go when someone else does. When I was younger I went to cross a pedestrian crossing like the old lady did in your story. Some one else who should have known better crossed at the pedestrian crossing ahead of me when it wasn't very safe to do so and I foolishly followed.

How often have you seen a car lunge forward to go straight when there is a green light for turning, but a red light for going straight? I have done it myself several times. Sometimes people don't even realise that their light is still red and they keep going.

The point is that if there are other people around they will sometimes follow you. If do something that is perfectly safe, such as turning when you have a green light, then I don't think you can be held responsible if someone else does something that is not safe. If you do something that is not safe, like crossing at a pedestrian crossing when there are cars coming, then in my opinion you bare a small amount of responsibility when someone follows you, but it is definitely a grey area.

Some parents run across roads in front of traffic, dragging their kids along with them, when they could wait about 20 seconds to cross safely. I think they should be held responsible if their children EVER get run over by a car!

Herd or pack, Mormons have two bloodlines in their heritage. I've got both, what about others?

Neither is bad, but they certainly don't have the same objectives. Herds serve herd animals well and packs serve pack animals well.

(Sheep and Wolf)

Reminds me of the hilarious videos we see of people walking into fountains because they are texting or looking at their cellphones.

We live our lives as LDS members in this type of "distracted" mode 24/7.

There are always tasks, obligations, rules, moral directives, and church activities to distract us from the moment we are born.

It is only during a moral crisis, when we turn away from the ancient "texts" sent to us by prophets, church leaders and brainwashed family members, that we get the chance to save ourselves from the ubiquitous "Toyota Truck" that is intent on mowing us down.

I grew up in a small town where mormons comprised only about 3% of the population. All of my friends and extended family were non mormon. I played the game and went to church. Pretended to feel the spirit at those critical moments and did the eagle scout thing. All the while, I was drinking with my friends, engaging in heavy petting with young ladies, and acting like a sailor abroad when not around mormons. I definitely had multiple personalities growing up.

So, in my case, I would say that I was formed by watching my friends intentionally ignore the "do not walk" sign and jump in front of the Tacoma for fun just to watch the driver slam on their brakes and curse while they would run away laughing. All of my friends had better home lives with loving and stable parents. I learned quickly that mormonism was fake thanks to them. The mormons I knew tried to feed me the lie that we would be rewarded in the next life but those tired looks of misery on their face always reveal the real truth.

If you want to see misery, go hang out in the BYU family housing. Those young mothers look shell-shocked. They realize they've spent their entire lives waiting for this moment, and. . . this is it? Plus, I think they all feel like rape victims. They know they're being irrational, but you can't go your whole life being responsible for the purity and virtue of society, and then just let it go, just like that.

I can accept that other people might not take all of the responsibility for their actions as a Mormon. Being brainwashed by definition means that we have lost control over one thing or another, and most likely we never had that control to begin with.

Not me. My parents taught me to think critically, to analyze situations and to make good decisions. Eventually that helped me to get out of Mormonism, but I had all of the faculties to choose and understand everything I was doing. At the time I just went along because I wanted so hard to believe it was right and that my life path was better. Nobody forced or coerced me to do a thing.

Interesting discussion though.

"I just went along because I wanted so hard to believe it was right"

Why did you want to believe it was right? Did someone, perhaps while crossing the street, suggest to you that it was right?

Mormonism stunts our growth. Then convinces us that we are not stunted (emotionally,mentally,spiritually,Etc) so we believe everyone else is stunted. It makes it twice as hard to crack the shell of ignorance. To your analogy, it might take a near miss, an actual collision, multiple collisions, or something more radical to break through - like realizing the route to work, intersection and speeding car are all arbitrary contrivances intentionally or negligently programmed into our brains so we don't notice there are other ways to get to the same destination. Hell, maybe there's an over the road walkway that we never see or use because we were told that the one true way to cross the street was at the crosswalk, or that the walkway was not to be trusted.