Stop signs, lights are not optional
Stop: To cease or halt the movement, progress, action, or operation of. (Heritage Dictionary)
Once again I was almost rear-ended by a soccer mom talking on her cell phone as I came to a COMPLETE stop at a stop sign today. Naturally she felt it was necessary to flip me off for obeying the law. Worse yet was an incident a few days ago when I was walking across a major intersection in the pedestrian walkway, and a teenager blew right through his red light like it wasn't there, and skidded to a stop about 2 inches before hitting me.
Yep ... he was either talking or texting at the time on his cell phone.
He didn't flip me off, but what he said can't be printed in this paper.
Naturally, I'm the bad guy.
What does it say about our society when almost no one wants to obey our laws anymore? I guess it says that this stop law is no longer valid ... it's an option. That being said, here's my proposal.
Let's take down ALL of the stop signs and stop lights and "thin out the herd."
I bet if we had 10,000 adults or their children killed or maimed in a week or two they would be begging for those signs and lights to be put back into business.
Not obeying the traffic laws makes you a criminal, and the fine example that you are setting for your children means that they are criminals as well.
People wonder why their auto insurance keeps going up and violators are continually returned to the streets.
The reason is that everyone is breaking the law, so it's OK ... it just costs you a little more.
In the meantime I will take my chances and come to a complete stop and pray that there is a law-abiding citizen not using their cell phone behind me. Life may be too short, but it only gets shorter when you do not stop.
Ralph Bossert
Lake Zurich