I've waited too long to write this and it is still eating me up every time I go through my hometown.
You see, one evening, my husband, Jim, was late getting home from work. And then he had to wait through a line of traffic downtown for a "safety" traffic stop. Keep in mind that our town has a grand total of 417 people as of the last census. So they want you to show proof of your insurance, is the thing. They want to know that you're legitimate. They tell us in the papers that it's to help stop people from driving under the influence. A week before this particular stop, I had seen in the paper that they'd held a similar stop in the county seat, where they caught 2 DUIs and a whole bunch of people on a variety of other minor offenses.
After Jim got home, we hurried through supper because I needed to get over to my mother's to pick up my son and I was going to be late. Jim says, "Take the backroads. Traffic stop in town." Good idea, I think. I'm driving toward town and sure enough I can see all kinds of emergency vehicles, including both police cars and a fire truck blocking the road at Main Street. I turn down a side road, and then another side road, zig-zagging my way across town toward my mother's. Would you believe they had one of those roads blocked off completely with no personnel manning it? So I get ready to turn around and guess what? I am being "stopped." I back into a driveway and wait for the officer to come to my window. I have only been stopped one other time in my life and it was pretty ridiculous, too. I am thinking, What now?
Officer says, "Do you know why I stopped you?" I am at a loss for words, so he tells me. "I stopped you for avoiding the blockade." I am wondering if that is, in fact, against the law? "Are you drinking?" he asks. That's a joke. I can't help but laugh as I answer, "Not hardly." The officer says, "Well, I'm going to have to call in your driver's license." I can hardly find the thing, because now I'm nervous. "Do you need my proof of insurance," I ask. He takes it, seemingly as an after-thought. Silly me--wasn't that what the whole safety check was about? Am I going to get a ticket for driving backroads to my mother's???!!! He says, "Where are you going?" I tell him. "Where does she (my mom) live?" I point in the general direction. "Do you always go this way?" I explain that sometimes I go this way. My friend's mother lives down here and I like to drive by once in a while and just check on her. He checks her name. "Yes," I say, "that's her."
I tell this detailed story because I wonder--what is happening to our country? When I was growing up, I heard about countries far away who were, unfortunately, not as free as "us." I was taught how they had to keep their papers with them everywhere they went and produce them on demand to prove that their business was legitimate. How sad I was for them. How thankful I am to be an American. But are we losing that freedom now? Did we go to sleep and dream it away? What a nightmare!
Are the law enforcement officers who are carrying out these policies really thinking about what they're doing and why? Are they making conscious choices? Is the benefit enough to make up for our loss of freedom? I hope they will stop and really reason through their duties.
Don't get me wrong. I want DUIs off the road too. I have the strong emotional reasons for wanting them off the road--one of my students got hit by one when she got off the school bus one day. But if that is really the point, I think it might be better to simply patrol more in the areas where the DUIs are most likely to occur. There is a 90 degree curve outside of town where a gravel road intersects with the state highway. It is known as "Dead Man's curve." I wrote a story in verse about somebody driving like a maniac through the area. The poem included the type of vehicle and the last 3 digits of the license plate. It was published in two local papers. Have I seen anybody patroling there? No. But I saw the same maniac coming through a 2nd time.
So the officers keep doing their "duty" and we, the people, show our papers and answer their questions so we can get on our way. Wake up, officers! Your duty is to "Serve and Protect," at least, that's what I thought it was. Wake up, people! Freedom is becoming obsolete. We really need an upgrade.
