nobody asked…

Occasionally we have the opportunity for a new and unique experience — something we have not done before. Some of those may be welcomed as growth experiences while others may be dreaded because of a real or perceived threat associated with them. And occasionally we can take one of the latter and consciously decide to tame it into something more positive and rewarding. Today I had one like that.

About a month ago I was heading out to a neighboring town to aid a customer in distress. Cruising out on a good 2-lane state highway that runs through the farmlands, I was enjoying the nice sunny day and the drive through the countryside when the peace was broken by the wailing siren and flashing blue lights of one of Franklin’s finest. As is the custom, I pulled to the edge of the pavement and slowed to let him pass and chase down whatever villain he was after. As I watched in my mirrors, he fell in behind me, slowing along with me. Yikes! To paraphrase Pogo, “I have met the villain and he is me.”

Following a brief lecture about observing the posted speed limit (which was ridiculously low, of course) he wrote out a ticket, we had a brief chat about UT football (what else…) and he wished me a good day. Even though he was right, and nice enough about it, and I was wrong, I wished him a day of a different sort…muttered after the window was back up and he was safely in his cruiser.

I’ve had one other speeding ticket in my life and that was so long ago I must have still been using training wheels. The immediate hit on this one was $116, and it would have been so easy to just write the check and be done with it. Knowing that my insurance company was always looking for reasons to raise my premium, I was determined to thwart their greedy efforts this time. So after checking into the alternative, I motored on down to Traffic Court at 7:30 this morning. Pleading guilty in front of a judge and then answering in the affirmative when asked if I wished to attend Driving School to keep the incident off my record seemed like a painless way to save several hundred dollars over the next 3 to 5 years. And it was just that simple, no strings, no gotchas. The fine I had to pay was reduced by $40 and the four-hour Driving School has a cost of $50. So my total investment in keeping the insurance company out of my pocket is $10 plus 4 hours of my time where I might actually learn to drive safely and obey the speed limits.

The Court Room was an interesting scene. Not your Perry Mason or LA Law or Judge Judy setting. It was just a room that had pews, like church pews, and a desk on a raised platform at one end. None of the expected frills. I guess they don’t raise enough money in Traffic Court to afford all the fancy stuff. The judge was just a guy, about my age, with a nice demeanor, but not a lot of time to waste. He had a room full of 40 to 50 people to process this morning. The crowd, which was pin-drop quiet, was about 1/3 white, 1/3 black, 1/3 latino, and one oriental. Gender-wise, it was probably 75% male, 25% female, and one unknown.

Since names were called in alphabetical sequence, I had plenty of time to observe and learn before my name was called. Most of the white and black defendants were there for speeding or other traffic violations, a few for driving on an expired license. The Mexicans basically had no freaking clue why they were there. Most spoke little or no useful English. How can we expect anyone to obey our laws and regulations when they cannot speak or read our language. It turns out the main mission of the lone officer in the front of the room was to act as interpreter for the Hispanics who needed assistance. They were mostly there with no license to drive, no insurance, no proper registration on the vehicles they drove. Some had their green cards, some said they had one but could not produce it. These are Bush’s babies ushered across the border and dumped on the states and local governments to feed, house, medicate, find work for, tend their offspring, and the rest of us are footing the bill. Depending on who is doing the estimating, that cost to the US taxpayers is somewhere in the range of $60 to $80 BILLION per year. Surprising that Bush chose to do this since that would pay for invasion and destruction of yet another country to find their WMDs.

W, why don’t you take a few dozen of these latinos home with you and take care of them and their extended families for the next several generations? Who knows, in a few years they may even teach you to speak good English.

All in all it was an interesting experience — certainly a different way to spend part of a morning. Too bad they did not allow hand-helds or laptops in the courtroom so I could blog it as it unfolded. Lessons learned? Can’t fight city hall and win. But I already knew that. You can’t fight the system and win, but you can use the system to win. Oh, and watch your speed…