Newbury: Papa Chet, can you hear me telling them they're dumb?
Erin Newbury
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: News
I wrote about this last semester in my blog on our website, (check it out) which nobody knows about nor reads, right after a 15 year-old girl died by veering off the road while texting.
Picture it. Des Moines. 1996. Cell phone free. Not a person would text as they drive through the streets. Cars would still stay in their own little lanes. Driving into the night, no G.P.S guiding the way. The radio was our company with songs like "How Bizarre." The only bright lights we saw were coming from stars.
Texting while driving is just silly and irresponsible. On a scale of one to dumb, it's a dumb. I would rank it dumber then walking down the middle of E. 14 at night and less dumb than Taylor Swift's song lyrics.
I was with a group of friends one time down in southern Iowa driving back from watching a volleyball game and the driver of the car was pulled over for a possible reckless driving violation. We all laughed and laughed because we thought it was so funny because she wasn't drunk, but now looking back on that night, going 65 on a highway in deer country while looking down is probably not the best way to spend an evening.
Driving and texting is pretty cool if you're into defying death everyday and living on the edge, although I would prefer skydiving, but if you kill somebody, it is your responsibility. No more college or friends or family or social lives. Say hello to bars and courtyard gangs and soap on a rope.
As our legislature continues talks about possibly making texting illegal for the state of Iowa, which could very well pass until those folks with too much time on their hands demand a vote so we can waste more time and money, all of us must realize that this law does not target one particular age group.
Sure those teenyboppers behind the wheel shouldn't be allowed to text or listen to the radio, but they are not the only problem. College students, parents, young and old people are all part of the problem.
Just the other day I watched a man in his overly large for driving in the city truck plow into the curb and right into a snow bank. Why you might ask? Was it because he's old? No. He was in fact texting. Yes sir, that old ZZ Top looking man had his little flip phone up to his eye trying to read, not even distracted by his curb check.
Picture it. Des Moines. 1996. Cell phone free. Not a person would text as they drive through the streets. Cars would still stay in their own little lanes. Driving into the night, no G.P.S guiding the way. The radio was our company with songs like "How Bizarre." The only bright lights we saw were coming from stars.
Texting while driving is just silly and irresponsible. On a scale of one to dumb, it's a dumb. I would rank it dumber then walking down the middle of E. 14 at night and less dumb than Taylor Swift's song lyrics.
I was with a group of friends one time down in southern Iowa driving back from watching a volleyball game and the driver of the car was pulled over for a possible reckless driving violation. We all laughed and laughed because we thought it was so funny because she wasn't drunk, but now looking back on that night, going 65 on a highway in deer country while looking down is probably not the best way to spend an evening.
Driving and texting is pretty cool if you're into defying death everyday and living on the edge, although I would prefer skydiving, but if you kill somebody, it is your responsibility. No more college or friends or family or social lives. Say hello to bars and courtyard gangs and soap on a rope.
As our legislature continues talks about possibly making texting illegal for the state of Iowa, which could very well pass until those folks with too much time on their hands demand a vote so we can waste more time and money, all of us must realize that this law does not target one particular age group.
Sure those teenyboppers behind the wheel shouldn't be allowed to text or listen to the radio, but they are not the only problem. College students, parents, young and old people are all part of the problem.
Just the other day I watched a man in his overly large for driving in the city truck plow into the curb and right into a snow bank. Why you might ask? Was it because he's old? No. He was in fact texting. Yes sir, that old ZZ Top looking man had his little flip phone up to his eye trying to read, not even distracted by his curb check.
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