Such a law might have helped us justify the new jail
the county commissioners tried to establish here. I think we're still
pretty safe if we have an overdue library book.
Supporters of the draconian law might say "well, be sure to return your library books on time." It's a good idea. There are lots of good ideas that should guide our lives. The question is how much to enlist law enforcement to push all of them. One such idea is to wear your seat belt.
It was once just a good idea. Was there really a public outcry or push to get the cops to crack down on motorists with this? Was it really organic, rising from the grassroots?
Would the Morris city council and mayor, on their own and minus any outside influence, really put the local Barney Fifes to work turning on the flashing lights and pulling over people for "no seat belt?"
Of course not.
Supporters of the draconian law might say "well, be sure to return your library books on time." It's a good idea. There are lots of good ideas that should guide our lives. The question is how much to enlist law enforcement to push all of them. One such idea is to wear your seat belt.
It was once just a good idea. Was there really a public outcry or push to get the cops to crack down on motorists with this? Was it really organic, rising from the grassroots?
Would the Morris city council and mayor, on their own and minus any outside influence, really put the local Barney Fifes to work turning on the flashing lights and pulling over people for "no seat belt?"
Of course not.
Maybe you're the type who might say, "well, you should
wear your seat belt." Just like "you should return your library book."
As for the law enforcement crackdown, which we have apparently had in spades here in Morris, some might say "well, you had it coming." I would characterize such people as exhibiting "learned behavior." Should we wear our seat belts? Well, of course we should, if for no other reason than we'll get pulled over and ticketed if we don't.
Because we really have no choice, we have learned to buy into the necessity of it. We have learned to lecture other people about it. Our normal sense of logic becomes suspended.
You have to ask yourself: Where is the sense of proportion here? What kind of driving are you doing? Under what conditions? We're a small rural community here, thank goodness, in which the Andy of Mayberry crowd would feel comfortable. Driving in broad daylight with safe road conditions would appear to be nearly 100 per cent safe.
But it's not 100 per cent? We start taking risks when we get out of bed in the morning. You could slip on a banana peel. Seriously, do we need to put some local Barney Fife to work turning on his lights, pulling people over, causing passers-by to gawk, just because someone isn't wearing a seat belt? Doesn't your common sense tell you there's something, well, out of proportion here?
The Morris Police Department is vigilant. Someone told me a meals on wheels volunteer got ticketed. I got ticketed. I was taking the family home from the Senior Community Center. Goodness knows who may have passed by me as I was pulled over on the side of the road, with the policeman's flashing lights behind me.
I'm 57 years old and have spent most of my life not concerned with seat belt use. Until getting the ticket neither I nor family members had ever worn them. Nearly all our driving is the slow, leisurely, around-town kind, in daylight.
Maybe in the winter, when it gets dark early, we're on the road when darkness arrives, dining out most likely. How do the Barney Fifes go after seat belt scofflaws after dark?
I find it kind of creepy that police officers are staring inside our vehicle all the time. They can spend their time on more serious offenses.
I saw a local Barney Fife parked along East 10th Street a few days ago. I had my seat belt on. I stared at him as I drove by and he seemed to have an awkward look on his face. I thought about stopping and shouting "are you looking for someone?"
I wanted to tell him to go and try to ambush people in a more affluent part of Morris, like maybe out at the addition by the dam. Those people can handle the fine - triple figures - easier than people in north Morris. But I just drove on.
As for the law enforcement crackdown, which we have apparently had in spades here in Morris, some might say "well, you had it coming." I would characterize such people as exhibiting "learned behavior." Should we wear our seat belts? Well, of course we should, if for no other reason than we'll get pulled over and ticketed if we don't.
Because we really have no choice, we have learned to buy into the necessity of it. We have learned to lecture other people about it. Our normal sense of logic becomes suspended.
You have to ask yourself: Where is the sense of proportion here? What kind of driving are you doing? Under what conditions? We're a small rural community here, thank goodness, in which the Andy of Mayberry crowd would feel comfortable. Driving in broad daylight with safe road conditions would appear to be nearly 100 per cent safe.
But it's not 100 per cent? We start taking risks when we get out of bed in the morning. You could slip on a banana peel. Seriously, do we need to put some local Barney Fife to work turning on his lights, pulling people over, causing passers-by to gawk, just because someone isn't wearing a seat belt? Doesn't your common sense tell you there's something, well, out of proportion here?
The Morris Police Department is vigilant. Someone told me a meals on wheels volunteer got ticketed. I got ticketed. I was taking the family home from the Senior Community Center. Goodness knows who may have passed by me as I was pulled over on the side of the road, with the policeman's flashing lights behind me.
I'm 57 years old and have spent most of my life not concerned with seat belt use. Until getting the ticket neither I nor family members had ever worn them. Nearly all our driving is the slow, leisurely, around-town kind, in daylight.
Maybe in the winter, when it gets dark early, we're on the road when darkness arrives, dining out most likely. How do the Barney Fifes go after seat belt scofflaws after dark?
I find it kind of creepy that police officers are staring inside our vehicle all the time. They can spend their time on more serious offenses.
I saw a local Barney Fife parked along East 10th Street a few days ago. I had my seat belt on. I stared at him as I drove by and he seemed to have an awkward look on his face. I thought about stopping and shouting "are you looking for someone?"
I wanted to tell him to go and try to ambush people in a more affluent part of Morris, like maybe out at the addition by the dam. Those people can handle the fine - triple figures - easier than people in north Morris. But I just drove on.
You cannot win a confrontation with a police officer. You cannot show up
a law enforcement person. So don't even try. They will preach that the
law they are enforcing is totally justified. But are all these mandates
really pure as the driven snow? Of course not.
Let's look at seat belt. Where did it come from? Public opinion was solidly against such a mandate at one time. What caused the shift? It was money and Federal blackmail. You see, carmakers were scared of a requirement to install air bags because of what they saw as prohibitive cost. Car prices would shoot upward.
Into the picture steps Elizabeth Dole. She was the quintessential bureaucrat/politician. In a world of deal-making, she offered a deal. The air bag rule would be withdrawn if states representing 2/3 of the population passed seat belt laws by April 1, 1989.
Carmakers seized the opportunity and began feverishly lobbying the states for seat belt laws. It would have been illegal for the Department of Transportation to do such lobbying. The lobby "Traffic Safety Now" was created.
But of course it was all about money. It wasn't the will of the people, it was the will of lobbyists. Let's salute the dollar sign.
The Federal government awarded huge grants to states in a push to elevate seat belt awareness and use. The money covered enforcement efforts that put countless Barney Fifes to work. Grants to states are a plum. Ticket revenue shot up, making state officials salivate.
"Money's honey, my dear sonny, and a rich man's joke is always funny."
And, a police officer's dictum on seat belts is of course totally grounded in logic. Except we allow motorcycle operators, bicyclists and pedestrians to be all over the place, far less protected than anyone in an automobile who isn't wearing his/her seat belt. I met one of those three-wheel motorcycles this morning (as I was on bike). Erwin Anderson tools around in one of those golf cart-like contraptions. Seems pretty fragile.
Look at that awful accident involving the Thymians recently.
Getting seat belt laws passed was still no easy matter. In most states it had to start out as a "secondary" offense. The public wouldn't have accepted it as primary - it would have been considered a joke.
When I was pulled over, on May 31 in Morris, it was a primary offense.
What kind of world are we living in? Where is our sense of proportion? Or as the late Rodney King once said, "Why can't we all just get along?"
Why was King lionized? What great gestures did this idiot ever perform for society? He was simply in an incident that showed how police can become overzealous. So the public does accept that this happens, i.e. that police can get overzealous.
Any Barney Fife who enjoys racing around our quiet little town, intensely staring into vehicles to check for seat belt, has to be a little creepy. I have lost all respect for the Morris Police Department. I'm concerned that any motorist can be stopped simply on suspicion of no seat belt.
Let's look at seat belt. Where did it come from? Public opinion was solidly against such a mandate at one time. What caused the shift? It was money and Federal blackmail. You see, carmakers were scared of a requirement to install air bags because of what they saw as prohibitive cost. Car prices would shoot upward.
Into the picture steps Elizabeth Dole. She was the quintessential bureaucrat/politician. In a world of deal-making, she offered a deal. The air bag rule would be withdrawn if states representing 2/3 of the population passed seat belt laws by April 1, 1989.
Carmakers seized the opportunity and began feverishly lobbying the states for seat belt laws. It would have been illegal for the Department of Transportation to do such lobbying. The lobby "Traffic Safety Now" was created.
But of course it was all about money. It wasn't the will of the people, it was the will of lobbyists. Let's salute the dollar sign.
The Federal government awarded huge grants to states in a push to elevate seat belt awareness and use. The money covered enforcement efforts that put countless Barney Fifes to work. Grants to states are a plum. Ticket revenue shot up, making state officials salivate.
"Money's honey, my dear sonny, and a rich man's joke is always funny."
And, a police officer's dictum on seat belts is of course totally grounded in logic. Except we allow motorcycle operators, bicyclists and pedestrians to be all over the place, far less protected than anyone in an automobile who isn't wearing his/her seat belt. I met one of those three-wheel motorcycles this morning (as I was on bike). Erwin Anderson tools around in one of those golf cart-like contraptions. Seems pretty fragile.
Look at that awful accident involving the Thymians recently.
Getting seat belt laws passed was still no easy matter. In most states it had to start out as a "secondary" offense. The public wouldn't have accepted it as primary - it would have been considered a joke.
When I was pulled over, on May 31 in Morris, it was a primary offense.
What kind of world are we living in? Where is our sense of proportion? Or as the late Rodney King once said, "Why can't we all just get along?"
Why was King lionized? What great gestures did this idiot ever perform for society? He was simply in an incident that showed how police can become overzealous. So the public does accept that this happens, i.e. that police can get overzealous.
Any Barney Fife who enjoys racing around our quiet little town, intensely staring into vehicles to check for seat belt, has to be a little creepy. I have lost all respect for the Morris Police Department. I'm concerned that any motorist can be stopped simply on suspicion of no seat belt.
Chief Beauregard, get a hobby.
There is a fundamental loss of freedom here - an unwanted intrusion by government into the personal lives of citizens.
Air bags ended up being required anyway. There was the hope auto insurance rates would be lowered. But were they really?
We can refuse a health recommendation. But politicians can force motorists to use a health care device - seat belt - against their will under threat of punishment.
There are many things we can do to try to promote safe driving. Make sure your tires are properly inflated. Our family does 99 per cent of its driving in daylight. That's very safe. Good roads are an element too.
Minnesota seat belt enforcement is draconian and irritating. It's an unjust blanket that gives us pause.
I am a Democrat and I believe in the legitimate application of government and laws. But measures like seat belt ticketing remind me that the tea partiers and libertarians aren't always off base.
There is nothing wrong with voluntary seat belt use.
Let's view all this as cautionary. Tourism is sought here. Let's not be akin to a "speed trap."
There is a fundamental loss of freedom here - an unwanted intrusion by government into the personal lives of citizens.
Air bags ended up being required anyway. There was the hope auto insurance rates would be lowered. But were they really?
We can refuse a health recommendation. But politicians can force motorists to use a health care device - seat belt - against their will under threat of punishment.
There are many things we can do to try to promote safe driving. Make sure your tires are properly inflated. Our family does 99 per cent of its driving in daylight. That's very safe. Good roads are an element too.
Minnesota seat belt enforcement is draconian and irritating. It's an unjust blanket that gives us pause.
I am a Democrat and I believe in the legitimate application of government and laws. But measures like seat belt ticketing remind me that the tea partiers and libertarians aren't always off base.
There is nothing wrong with voluntary seat belt use.
Let's view all this as cautionary. Tourism is sought here. Let's not be akin to a "speed trap."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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