Weekly Short Story: The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury

One of the late Ray Bradbury's more important stories is a very short one: The Pedestrian, five pages long, which he published in 1951 and appears in the retrospective anthology Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 14 (1952).  When I first read it, I instantly knew that Bradbury had nailed it perfectly.  Although it was written many years ago, its significance has if anything increased over the years.  And why not?  Its setting is in the future, in the year 2053...

In a time when a young Sanford, Florida man couldn't walk home alone in his neighborhood from a nearby convenience store without being scrutinized, accosted, and ultimately killed by a "do-gooder" vigilante driving around the subdivision, the message of The Pedestrian is clear: if you're inside enclosed walls, that's cool...it's also okay if you're outside, as long as you are safely enclosed within the confines of your motor vehicle.  But don't you dare get out on the street and walk down it...why, then you're a menace to society.  The irony of all this is that, while people who are taking walks are the least likely folks to present a danger to others, it is those driving around in vehicles who potentially could present the much greater threat, what with their mobility, insulation, ability to transport and hide weapons, and room to abduct victims.  In my frequent runs around my neighborhood and the nearby ones, I have often experienced cars (and worse, vans) creeping up on me, sometimes even stopping down the road before taking off again.  It's obvious that I was their target of interest: were they George Zimmerman wannabes, are maybe they were just your garden-variety Ted Bundy sort of predator...it's easy to get carried away with these thoughts when you're out there, vulnerable to whatever comes by.  And then, of course, there is always the fortified security-minded neighbor, probably with an arsenal of guns in his house, who keeps in his yard ferocious attack dogs that from time to time get loose and wreak havoc up and down the block with anyone who has the nerve to walk, run, or even ride their bicycle down it. Finally, the police themselves, when patrolling an area, are much more likely to look down suspiciously on pedestrians...especially men...as potential criminals, especially within residential areas where home invasions are feared possibilities...

On the plus side, walking as a fitness activity seems to be on the upsurge, and I like seeing people out there improving their own lives with exercise.  Being a pedestrian boils down to the most basic form of human locomotion: walking, and if you can't freely walk around in public anywhere and anytime you want without suffering some sort of harassment or unwarranted scrutiny and suspicion, then you aren't truly free...

And now YOU can read The Pedestrian for yourself...just click on the following link: [link]...