Is it OK if I vent?  Allow me to rephrase.  I am going to rant; after all it is my blog I don’t have to ask.

This morning I was driving close to the posted 50 mph speed limit near a school.  An older guy, not as old as me, driving a large SUV passed me.  He was doing at least 10 to 15 mph above the posted limit.

He had a few of my pet peeves (bumper stickers) on the bumper and rear window. The big bold one that got my attention said “TEXTING KILLS”.  I got news for you buddy; speed also kills.  I didn’t see a sticker condemning excessive speed.  I didn’t see any reference to eating, reading, shaving, emailing, playing on Face Book or Twitter, putting on makeup, combing the hair, slapping the kids or sleeping.  All those things endanger others, why did this guy single out texting.  Maybe he couldn’t find a bumper sticker for any of that other stuff.

It has become extremely popular to raise hell about texting while driving.  I think it is a form of age bias; the naïve believe that only kids text and drive.  I sometimes speed and yes occasionally text a little bit.  The difference between me texting and my granddaughter texting:  She does about 30 words a second and it takes me about 30 seconds to do a word.  I have probably been guilty of doing most of the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

We shouldn’t need laws to prevent those things, common sense should cover it, but we are talking humans here.  There are specific laws for speeding; the other things are covered under one called “inattentive driving” or something like that. Inattentive driving is a secondary offense.  It is only enforced if you are detained for another reason.

The legislative bodies in several states, Oklahoma included, already have or are considering laws to make texting a primary offense.

When those laws are passed and the policeman stops me for texting, I just explain to him I wasn’t texting I was updating my status on Face Book or answering my email or maybe in my case writing a blog post. He apologizes and sends me on my way.

I think those elected officials should step up and make inattentive driving a primary offense, but then my senator would lose my vote because I would need to shave and eat breakfast before I got behind the wheel. He thinks the kids that text aren’t old enough to vote anyway.

Thanks for listening; I feel better.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave