Monday, December 19, 2005
Do I Have To?
A few days ago my home in the Upstate of South Carolina was hit with an ice storm. Close to one million homes and businesses lost power in the storm. I ventured out the morning after the storm in search of some necessities for the coming weekend and was surprised that, when I needed to turn left onto a six lane state highway, traffic in both directions actually stopped and allowed me onto the road.
One day later I was faced with a similar scenario. The majority of homes and businesses which had lost power were still without power. I was driving on a major road in town and this time I stopped to let someone cross four lanes to merge into traffic. This time horns sounded from all directions.
The difference in the two scenarios appears obvious enough. However, there is one less than obvious difference. By the second day the police were asking motorists to treat all intersections with unpowered traffic lights to be treated as four-way stops. The irony is that when asked to treat such intersections as a four-way stop people rebelled against doing what they'd freely done the day before.
Just remember, you don't have to do what is right, you get to...
One day later I was faced with a similar scenario. The majority of homes and businesses which had lost power were still without power. I was driving on a major road in town and this time I stopped to let someone cross four lanes to merge into traffic. This time horns sounded from all directions.
The difference in the two scenarios appears obvious enough. However, there is one less than obvious difference. By the second day the police were asking motorists to treat all intersections with unpowered traffic lights to be treated as four-way stops. The irony is that when asked to treat such intersections as a four-way stop people rebelled against doing what they'd freely done the day before.
Just remember, you don't have to do what is right, you get to...
