Frank J. Buchman

Cowboy • Horseman • Writer

Heavy Throttle Not The Best Way

Ole Leadfoot sure is going slow.

That’s the way it seems now as everybody passes us while we make a daily commute for our job.

Traffic speed has far surpassed posted limits for some time. Increased number on signs since the first of July has expanded driver pace further.

Few drivers have as extensive excessive speed records as we do, and we’re ashamed of it.

Friday night after playing in band at a basketball game, the town marshal flashed his cherry top and pulled the grocery delivery wagon over to warn us we’d gone too fast in the block from the library to the Baptist Church.

Don’t know if radar was invented then, but our home town sure didn’t have one. So, Red the night cop, of the two man department, clocked us with his wrist watch.

No ticket that time, but more than our share of flack was received from other teenagers dragging Main that night.

Our second stopping is non-memorable, and we’d don’t have any idea how many times it’s been since.

We haven’t always been fined, but the total cost is more than we’d like to admit.

Insurance rate expansion has been the worst consequence. It’s been so bad sometimes that we held our breath every time we passed a lawman, because another citation would have taken our license.

We’d prefer to ride our horse, but time prohibits when the paying occupation is as far away.

One of our heroes contends it really doesn’t matter if one exceeds limits, because they are manmade rules easily changed. The most important thing, he says, is never to be caught.

That is right in the respect that limits have decreased and increased markedly over the past three decades.

Fuel saving incentives was the reason for initial lowering, and now that gas is higher than ever, the speed limit approaches record highs. That’s really logical?

However, going too fast can be hazardous, not only to the driver, but to others, which can become a moral issue as well as a legal one.

Reminds us of the Fifth Commandment in Exodus: 20:13: “Thou shalt not kill.”

Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good.

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