OUR VIEW: These two new laws will be good for Virginia
Published: July 6, 2009
Updated: July 6, 2009
» It’s sad that our state has to enact common-sense laws to protect us from a) ourselves and b) overzealous bureaucrats.
Next time you plop down into the driver’s seat in Virginia, be sure to text your friend BRB — for those over 30, that means be right back. On Wednesday, the state enacted a law that makes it illegal to text while driving.
Shouldn’t that be common sense? Most people don’t read while they drive, or write while they drive. So why would you attempt to do both on a screen that’s usually so small you have to squint to see it?
In Virginia last year, there were 114 deaths related to distracted drivers, and nearly 15,000 were injured in distracted driver wrecks. It only makes sense for the state to outlaw TWI (texting while driving), and we hope that police are able to properly enforce the edict.
We also applaud the General Assembly for passing a bill allowing citizens to wear political clothing at the polls.
Leigh Purdum of Madison County — who wore a McCain T-shirt to her polling location in November — was one voter who fought the State Board of Elections’ ill-advised ban on political clothing, hats and other paraphernalia. She was also the only person arrested statewide for daring to break the Gestapo-like rule.
Because state lawmakers did the right thing and trumped the BOE’s silly interpretation of the previous law, the case against Purdum was dropped. Again, common sense has prevailed: When voting, nobody should tell you what you can or can’t wear. Supporting a candidate by wearing his or her name on your T-shirt is just a plain part of the American democratic process.
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It was nice to see Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds visit Culpeper Saturday.
Deeds has made it a point to stop in Culpeper before, and our town continues to be a crucial stop during election years. It’s interesting to note that Democrats are making themselves more visible in our area, still considered a Republican stronghold. It will be interesting to see if it helps their cause at all in November.
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Reader Reactions
The Gestapo participated in extermination in the concentration camps. Not allowing someone who wear a sign into a voting booth is hardly comparable. May I assume that we should now allow people to carry signs into voting booths? If not how about signs duct-taped to their shirts?
To focus on one word rjma and please note that the word is hyphenated does not mean they are comparing our government to the Gestapo. The law was ridiculous or outlandish and to be honest the law did limit freedom of speech which by definition is “gestapo-like”. But don’t focus on one word it’s too much like the CSE does they don’t look at the context but focus on one aspect and rarely look for facts. I am very surprised they even came up with this editorial, but then in reality it was probably someone filling for CSE during the 4th of July weekend.
Sorry missed your post but saw it after posted.
While I fully support common sense, I think the definition of that word has indeed changed since I was growing up. In fact I still confuse common sense and what I called manners. Not using a cell phone period would be common sense, or taking a call and pulling over to the side and using the phone is common sense. I have of yet to receive a call that couldn’t wait. I have witnessed too many people talking and think they are doing fine driving and others having to adjust because the person wasn’t paying attention. My phone actually has the ability to capture the number of the person calling and I can re-dial it at a better time. Besides texting, talking on a cell phone should be a primary offense as well. Not to mention eating, etc.
Regardless it won’t make to much of a dent in changing people’s habits. If it does I’ll be surprised, but then I still see people reading, putting on makeup, adjusting clothing, hair, etc. I guess we should remove the mirror in cars, heck common sense, what is it really. Then again I still remove my hat and sunglasses when I go indoors, but then that’s really just a silly superstition, right?.
Gestapo? You need to recheck what the Gestapo did.
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