Human bobbleheads districted with cell phones
Many drivers use a cellphone now. Eyes to road then phone, phone to road, road to phone. Voila: The Human Bobblehead!
A cellphone is one of many driving distractions. Drivers know it is wrong to handle a phone when driving, but they get away with it. One day they will not. As a teenager in the early 1990s, warnings about drunken driving were given. Unfortunately, a drunken driver hit me when I was 16. My gait, hearing and speech are damaged.
Cellphones were far from reality then. Now, drivers use cellphones to communicate, text, and/or play games. This is a common practice today.
NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) reports texting while driving is six times more dangerous than drunken driving. Warnings about cellphones are needed now.
Prom and spring/summer festivities are coming. Cellphone usage while driving or driving drunk can ruin these days.
While driving, your phone rings. Your friend texted, “Are you on SR-145”
Is a ticket, crash, or even death coming because of your pointless desire to answer your friend while driving?
Keep in mind, teenagers are not the only ones distracted by the phone: Adults are too.
Never do anything you wouldn’t want to explain to the First Responders. Driving requires you to use your eyes and hands. So does texting. Use the phone when parked. Let my words impact you before a screech and a thud does.
—Lori Martin, Tracy, California
The Coronavirus
Look, here’s the deal. The coronavirus is not the plague and we’re not all going to die, at least not yet. More people will die from more causes than the coronavirus will ever touch. The important thing is to believe and to trust that this is not worth panicking about. We don’t need to all buy face masks. We don’t need to hoard food and stock up like we did for the Year 2000 scare.
We’ve seen things like this come and go. If we’ve been around long enough, we’ve seen the fallout shelters that were supposed to protect us from nuclear attack. We went through the drills and got under our desks. We’ve bought every fear that’s been peddled to us and took whatever extravagant precautions as we were told. And now, here we are. We’re told the world is going to end in 12 years because of climate change.
We’ve scared the children. We’ve frightened them in to believing that they have no future and for what? Who are we to have divined these truths? Do we really know that? Why not instead take a page from common sense and realize that this is not the first time that we’ve all been driven to believe that the end is near, that we’re on the verge of some great apocalypse, that our time is up, that it’s over. Well, I think not.
Just settle down and take things as they come. This like all other things shall pass and when it does, we’ll look back on this and wonder what all the fuss was about. I say, take every day as it comes. Go news free for a week or two if that will help. Stop paying attention to the media. Enjoy the day. Be grateful. Treat each other well. Be good. Take care of yourself. And if you want to do something, cover your mouth when you cough and wash your hands. It’s not all that bad. Relax. Life is good.
—Howard Glasser, Kelseyville
Setting the record straight about foster care
Kathryn Jean Lopez writes a very heartfelt story about foster care (Record-Bee, March 3) but fails us on many points. She does not explain why the city of Philadelphia dropped Catholic Social Services (CSS) for foster care. This organization was dropped because it refused to deal with same sex couples.
Philadelphia’s laws against discrimination dictated that CSS be dropped. CSS brought suit but a federal judge found for Philadelphia. The case is now before the Supreme Court due to appeal from CSS. Ms. Lopez also tells us, “We need religious liberty because it is a fundamental right that the government exists to protect.” This is wrong. The First Amendment states that the government shall not create laws regarding religion. This protects religious organizations from government. This also prevents the government from protecting religion. Ms. Lopez also tells of several members of CSS that can no longer take in foster children because CSS was dropped. This is also false. These caring adults can still take on foster kids outside of CSS and they would be very welcome by Philadelphia which has a great need. Why does Ms. Lopez not tell us about these things? I suspect, as she is very conservative, that these things do not fit into her world view so can legitimately be ignored.
—Kevin Bracken, Kelseyville
