Get Them Off the Road!

I can remember when driving was fun. I can remember, too, when operating a motor vehicle was regarded as a privilege, not an entitlement. As the majority attitude has come to regard driving as one of the inalienable rights protected by the Constitution, our highways have become mobile slaughterhouses. Tens of thousands of lives are lost each year to automobile accidents, but I have yet to see King George declare war on this domestic terrorism. I’m mad, because some inept motorist rear-ended Rachel and Steve’s new Honda Civic that hadn’t been on the road more than a couple of weeks. The sporty little Impreza that we gave Rachel when she was in high school was totaled by another incompetent driver. After seeing the wreckage at the salvage yard, I still don’t believe that she lived through that one. Both of these terrorists were insured by Progressive, and while that has ended in a good settlement for the victims, it must surely raise the question in the minds of others insured by the company about how their premiums are being affected by the fact that Progressive will apparently insure anyone. If we were killing forty-to-fifty thousand passengers each year in airplane crashes, I’m guessing that quite a few licenses would get pulled and that the requirements for a commercial pilot’s license would become much more stringent. I’m ready to include myself in the cut. Let’s get the retarded and the incompetent out from behind the wheel and return a degree of sanity (and joy) to the privilege of driving.