Is it really that difficult...

Dear Congressman,

I will be the first to admit that on occasion I will come to this forum and rant on topics that are of absolute no interest to you. This is one of those days....

I would like to address this blog entry to the young man in the noisy bondo-covered Chevy Cavalier who was riding my rear bumper so closely I felt inclined to offer him a breath mint. However, upon reflection, I have serious doubts as to whether this fine upstanding citizen has spent much of his adolescence in pursuit of the expansion of his literary proficiency, except in rare cases where he eagerly dived into his dusty rarely used copy of Websters Dictionary to ensure that his latest tattoo was in fact spelled correctly.

In cases where we are on a highway and Mr. Nascar fan decides to draft my bumper I simply flip the turn signaling device on my vehicle to indicate that I am clearing a path for him to resume his attempted recreation of George Miller's Mad Max/Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and then continue on my merry way. The problem in this case is we were in a suburban neighborhood where the speed limit was 25 miles per hour. This individual clearly felt that somewhere around 50 miles per hour was an acceptable alternative in lieu of my observation of local traffic ordinances.

To understand my perspective, it is best explained in this way:

If you as a parent or a pet owner let your children or beloved Fido/Mimi play on the freeway/highway/motorway, then Darwin's theories of natural selection apply and I am fully entitled to plow them over with my car, while all the while trying to minmize the damage to my personal vehicle. However, if you allow your childen and/or to play/roam on your local neighborhood street where the speed limit is their for their protection, then the minimum expectation on my part is that I watch for them and proceed at a speed that will allow me to react in time in the case they step out in front of me.

There was a very good radio ad that ran in England last year. It was the sound of a car hitting a kid at 35mph, then silence. Then the announcer states that the next sound is a car hitting a kid at 25mph, with a thump followed by loud crying.

The ending message: if you hit a child while driving at 35mph, there is an 80% chance that you will kill that child. If you hit a child while driving at 25mph, there is an 80% chance that the child will survive.

Your call, tattooed backward yankee cap dude......