Luskin: Law Abiding Citizens

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(Host)
Commentator Deborah Lee Luskin is a novelist, essayist and educator who
lives near Brattleboro, where three recent pedestrian fatalities have
started her thinking about the connection between being a good driver
and being a good citizen.
 
(Luskin) When I’m a pedestrian in
downtown Brattleboro, I’m often in a state of heightened irritation at
drivers who don’t stop when I have the right-of-way at a crosswalk. For
years, I’ve stared down drivers, willing them to stop as I assert my
right to cross. Most drivers do stop, and many do so politely. Some
drivers, though, exhibit attitude, as if stopping for a pedestrian is a
terrible inconvenience. I give them attitude right back – although I’m
smart enough to do it from the curb.

But when I’m driving in
downtown Brattleboro, I’m often in a heightened state of irritation at
the pedestrians who cross in the middle of the street. I’ve even seen
parents with young children do this, and it takes all my self-control
not to roll down my window and give them a tongue-lashing.

What
bothers me about drivers who don’t stop for pedestrians and about
pedestrians who don’t use crosswalks is really about something bigger
than street safety. It’s about following the law. So when I see a parent
jaywalking with a child in tow, I don’t just see immediate, dangerous
behavior; I see a parent teaching a child that it’s okay to break the
law. Likewise, when a driver with kids in the car deliberately ignores
stop signs, traffic lights, crosswalks and – yes – even speed limits,
that driver is teaching those children that breaking laws is okay. And
to listen to most people who are ticketed for speeding or arrested for
driving under the influence is to hear a tale not of wrong doing, but of
getting caught – as if the guilt is all in being apprehended.

What’s
true for traffic laws also seems to be true for taxes; people seem to
think it’s okay not to pay them. One of my children has been offered a
job as a nanny, and her employer wants to pay her under the table, in
cash. This may be common practice, but it’s also illegal, and I’ve urged
my daughter to ask her employer to reconsider. Technically, the
employer should contribute half the social security and Medicare
liability and withhold the other half from my daughter’s wages. There
are lots of reasons why the Medicare Trust Fund is running out of money;
the failure to report income and pay taxes are among them.

If it
sounds like I’m a goody-two-shoes, then maybe I am. But I’m a staunch
believer in both civil rights and civil responsibility. And civil
responsibility means conforming to one’s community standards, standards
expressed in laws legislated by people we elect and enacted for the
public good.

As the political season heats up and the rhetoric
about the role of government is hotly debated, I think we need to
consider our role as citizens as well. And we might as well start small –
by using crosswalks when we’re on foot, and stopping at them when we’re
at the wheel of a car.

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