I can feel the safe driving forces rallying behind a new cause. Momentum has been gathering for some time to crack down on cell phone use and texting while driving.
I have no interest in driving while texting, cell phoning or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. I simply don’t condone destructive behavior, but consider the overreaction by various public agencies and society regarding the drunken driving problem to be every bit as destructive as the crime itself.
How soon will the courts, with a new safe driving cause to enforce, begin, on a first cell phone or text offense, to jail, to suspend driver’s licenses, to force offenders into bankruptcy, to cause repossessions of homes, to cause divorces and a new generation of welfare recipients, criminals and illegal texters?
I don’t think those penalties will happen to any of the new electronic offenders because they are from too broad a spectrum of society. They include judges, lawyers and politicians, the very people who make the laws.
However, it is very easy for politicians and the general public to beat up on unpopular minorities such as drinkers, smokers, poor people and fat people.
Not every traffic offense results in the courts ruining people’s lives as part of the punishment. Yes, drinking results in slower mental and physical emergency reaction time, but half of the sober driving public already has a slower mental and physical reaction time than the other half. My argument is not against enforcing DUI laws, my argument is that we do not have to ruin individuals and their families while doing it.
Most DUI offenders are not alcoholics or even repeat offenders. Something like 90 percent to 95 percent of DUI license suspensions happen to first- or second-time offenders. Why not treat first-time offenders with the same respect as any other traffic offender, with a fine and a warning for the first offense, and a gradual increasing of severity of penalties, if needed?
The winners in this saga are the people who make money off this industry, the lawyers, the insurance companies, the courts and the law enforcement agencies. The losers are every seventh one of us. The rest of us are somewhere in between, with somewhat safer roads and a more damaged society to repair.
William Lally
Doylestown
Blame the Democrats
The author of the Jan. 27 letter “Disciples of Rush Limbaugh” conveniently forgot that both houses of Congress were controlled by the Democrats beginning in 2007 through 2010. In two of those years, the Democrats also held the president’s office.
So, to blame “the do-nothing Republicans” is not true.
If, especially in two years of total control (2009 and 2010), nothing was accomplished, the writer most certainly must put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Democrats.
By the way, did they not pass the $787 billion stimulus package? What has been the result of that?
Gasoline prices in January 2009 were about $1.78 per gallon. They are about $3.45 per gallon today.
Unemployment is at an unacceptable 8.5 percent. Many jobs to put Americans to work have been torpedoed by the Environmental Protection Agency, and directly and indirectly by the president.
Bob Neidert
Stow
Take the path of clean energy
Thank you for covering the news about the FirstEnergy plant closings. I am relieved to hear of any closings by this company. It pollutes our air and kills billions of fish a year while avoiding the clean-energy provisions of Senate Bill 221 at every turn.
This company needs to change its entire energy production strategy to cleaner sources like wind and solar. I hope it chooses to care more about the environment and people rather than profits from dirty energy.
Chris Schrader
Akron
Fighter for his troops
This is in reply to John L. Seaburn’s Jan. 27 letter, “Representing one interest.”
Paul Hlynsky has been elected as president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 these many years because he is a fighter for his troops, as any union president should be.
He was in the U.S. Army, where he attained the rank of major. There, you not only protect your country, but take care of your troops.
I was in the Army, and became a member of the Akron Police Department in 1963. Because of the low pay, good benefits and retirement were offered as inducements to join. We are still in court fighting for our benefits today.
If Seaburn would check his facts, he would find that we went many years without a raise, until we were able to negotiate a fair contract with the city.
The occupation of being a police officer is a unique one. The public never wants us to be there when they commit a traffic offense, but always be there to apprehend the other guy. It sounds like Seaburn may have been stopped a few times and hasn’t gotten over it.
Howard F. Robinson Jr.
Akron
Standing up for women
Last month, President Obama made it clear that he trusts women and is committed to protecting access to affordable birth control, which is both a serious health care and economic concern.
The elimination of co-pays with this new health-care law will make birth control more accessible to women, so they can plan families and have healthy pregnancies and healthy children.
Although I am one of the roughly 80 percent of Americans with health insurance, I, like millions of women, have paid thousands of dollars in co-pays for birth control. Employers should not dictate their employees’ access to basic health care, including affordable birth control.
But we must not forget that Ohio is now a battleground for women’s reproductive rights. House Bill 125, the “heartbeat” bill, is a looming, frightening reality that would restrict access to abortion.
The radical “personhood” amendment, if it indeed appears on November’s ballot, would have a catastrophic impact, outlawing all abortions, most birth control and in vitro fertilization. It is my hope that President Obama’s stand for women and their reproductive justice will be a precedent to change the dangerous direction of our state.
Alice Allen
Rocky River
Pro-life? To what extent?
This is in reply to the Jan. 6 letter “Abortion, a fatal choice” in which the writers, obviously pro-lifers, noted that not only is an abortion fatal to the unborn but also “is harmful to women.” Then they said: “On imposing morality on someone else, there is no more absolute way to impose morality on another than to kill them.”
Could this explain why organized pro-lifers, whose name would imply that they are opposed the taking of any person’s life, are not rallying also against the death penalty and the daily killings of people with handguns?
Perhaps it is not the potential life of the unwanted, aborted fetus they are concerned about, but the fact that the mothers have a different concept of sexual morality.
If this is so, before they continue their fight against legal abortions, they should note that children, particularly unwanted ones, often inherit and exhibit the immorality of their parents.
To get the petitions signed for their proposed “personhood” constitutional amendment, I would suggest they change the term they use to describe themselves from “pro-life” to “pro-morality teaching.”
However, if they want to keep the name, then they should include in their constitutional amendment the requirement that all handgun carriers must not conceal the deadly weapon, but must keep it visible, so that potential victims can step aside and avoid them.
James McNenny
Stow
Make Akron a safer city
It was enjoyable reading Phillip H. Talty’s Jan. 30 letter regarding Chief James Nice’s reorganization of the police department and the chief’s relationship with the mayor. (“Understaffed and overworked”).
Talty expressed my sentiments exactly.
Ride Akron’s expressways and streets, and you’ll see the scofflaws are at it big time. Traffic safety enforcement is almost nonexistent because of the lack of personnel.
It’s time for Mayor Plusquellic, Nice and Council President Marco Sommerville to support a levy for Akron’s safety forces. Passage would make Akron a much safer city.
Matt Contessa
Akron
Beyond Washington
Regarding the case against Leonard Little (“Senior gets surprise: Jail,” Feb. 1):
When it comes to the law, it’s great to know all of the ding-dongs are not in Washington.
Edward Hickey
Barberton
