GB,
As I have gotten older in my years, I have gotten more philosophical and accepting about such things.
I had a brief acquaintance with an older traffic enforcement officer who shared a couple of traffic-stop stories with me and at least in one of them there was a real possibility that he may have left his children fatherless as a result.
I have come to accept that local, city, state, federal organizations need revenue in which to operate. Most of that revenue is generated through local, state, and federal taxes.
These monies in part go to the pay the salaries of the employees of these organizations, go to improve the construction quality of our highway systems (at least in theory) so I am willing to accept their need to find revenue from different sources to allow them to continue to function to our benefit...revenue from traffic citations is not one other for of such a "tax."
In my youth, I used to be a rebel during traffic stops and that didn't ever get me where I wanted to go, anyway.
As I have matured and taken a longer-view, I realize these men and women actually put their very lives on the line anymore when it comes to traffic stops. Like us, they have families, like us many of them like cars, and I believe they generally are there to make a positive difference.
I have found that by extending a little respect and courtesy (something that I am afraid is in short supply in much of today's society) they most often return the same.
Remember, during any traffic stop, your presumed to be a "threat" (for their health's sake) until you prove otherwise.
Try imagining yourself in their position as they approach a strange vehicle with an unknown, unidentified number of occupants whose intentions are unknowable.
What's getting my goat of late, if you already haven't notice, is the soon-to-be rapid deployment of automated traffic enforcement devices, whose primary purpose (whether stated are not)
is revenue generation.
If you care about them as much as I do and want to make a real difference,
please consider joining the political lobbying group, the National Motorists Association. Your very small membership dues will go along way to ensuring our future driving freedoms from this and other related technology.
How 'bout it?
Veil Guy
