OMG, Granholm: Texting ban sends the right message

When I was a teenager in the early 1990s, socializing was mostly done through parents’ telephones or, if you were desperate, pay phones.
The term “landline” was still reserved for the military.
Getting directions somewhere meant pulling out a slip of paper and writing down the various roads and turns, or having someone draw you a map.
Then along came pagers, which more or less directed you to the nearest phone.
None of these things affected the way we drove as teens, because they all took place out of the car.
But then Al Gore, armed with a pickaxe and a miner’s helmet, went underground and dug the tunnels for the interconnected World Wide Web (thanks, Al).
“Just give me the address,” you now requested, usually over a cell phone, and then punched it into the Internet, printed out the directions and off you went.
Until, of course, GPS navigational units appeared in cars and directed you where to go with robot voices.
The state government has now deemed the biggest pain brought on by all this new technology is text messaging while driving. Amid much fanfare (it was broadcast on Oprah!) Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed into law a ban on texting while driving.
Starting July 1, texting while operating a vehicle will become a primary offense, which means police can pull you over if they see your busy thumbs typing away. The first offense is $100. The second offense can cast $200.
The thing Democrats aren’t even taking into consideration is that even without the distraction of cell phones and texting, teens aren’t always the greatest drivers.
When I was fifteen, a friend of mine was seriously injured in a car accident. He broke both arms and several bones in his legs. He was in a wheelchair for months afterward. Scars still trace down both forearms and his knees.
How did the accident happen?
He was reaching for a slice of pizza.
So, do we ban pizzas in our cars while we drive because the savory smell might be so distracting we lose control?
Do we ban putting on make-up, smoking and talking to other passengers?
More and more, the government is passing laws on how an individual chooses to live their day to day life.
It’s mostly coming the liberal “control-everything” camp, the same good folks who brought you political correctness in the 1990s. Liberals like this always haughtily take the moral high ground on such issues.
“You should live the morally ‘right’ way, and we’re going to show you how,” they seem to say.
With that said, I’m actually leaning toward being in favor of the texting ban, despite the voice on the other side of my brain saying that it’s an infringement on personal liberties.
I confess that I’m an occasional driver/texter. Not only is it distracting your thoughts, which are having a silent conversation with whoever is typing away messages on the other end, but it diverts your gaze away from the road and onto the tiny little screen.
I couldn’t count how many times I’ve been behind or beside an erratic driving vehicle only to see that they’ve got one hand on the wheel, and the other holding their phone up to their nose as they type really important missives to their fellow texters.
So, I’ll reluctantly go along with the law and keep my phone in my pocket where it belongs when I’m on the road.
Ttyl, Manistee.