With my brief hiatus from bloggerland coming to an end (I hope), I submit for your perusal the following water cooler discussion points. Please weigh in on one or both.
You Break it, You Pay for it
Are we always accountable for our own actions? Yesterday I was the lucky recipient of a piece of mail from the State of Arizona...a photo radar traffic summons! Sound the trumpets! I did some research and found that since I was not "served" (physically given the summons by an officer or a process server), I can ignore the ticket. In discussing this at the office, a friend, coworker, and fellow blogger (all the same person) was very direct about it. She asked if I was speeding. I said yes. She said to pay the ticket. So, do I pay it, or do I ignore it?
Freedom of Speech
You are in a public area with your young child or children. Or, you're by yourself for that matter. Someone is using a plethora of explicatives. You ask them not to (for whatever reason, or possibly, do you don't give them a reason). They refuse saying that 1) it's a free country and 2) they have a right to freedom of speech. Are they right, or can you haul off and sock them in the mouth; woops I meant do you have the right to be upset about it, but short of making a citizen's arrest, that's about it?
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4 comments:
Oooh.. thought provoking. I love it!
Ticket: I am an annoying rule follower. So.. I would say it depends on how deep you had to dig to find that answer. If it is on AZ's DOT website.. by all means, ignore it. But if you had to contact 8 different questionable legal offices, you might just want to pay it. And for crying out loud.. S-L-O-W D-O-W-N. :)
Not sure I would support the hitting.. but maybe carry a bar of soap with you. Then it can become a lesson for the offender AND your child. "See what happens when you use bad words?". *giggle*
I would:
a) pay the ticket. doing the right thing means doing it when "no one's looking"
b) if I asked someone to not swear in public and they continued to swear after that, I'd either ask someone in charge (if it's a restaurant or store) to step in, or just leave. But I would probably say "What a jerk!" in front of my kids, which isn't nice. But that person would be a jerk. Maybe you could punch them for me?
OK, let's reflect....
Given: You shouldn't have been speeding. You broke the rules, you should pay the concequences. The rules are to protect us. you didn't hurt anyone (this time). If you were served, you'd pay. Is paying the ticket going to not make you speed next time? By not serving you aren't they not following the rules? So, shouldn't they oay the concequences of not getting paid? Hmmm...I wouldn't pay it. Why because I don't HAVE to but I'd slow down because I SHOULD.
Swearing in public...if it was directed at me, I would comment for sure (nicely). If it was not directed at me I would comment to those I was with (child or adult) about the behavior. If it was truly affecting my personal enjoyment then I would ask someone in charge to do something. I can recall doing that at a movie theater when someone was on the phone and cursing through a majority of a movie. I went and told management. They asked the person to leave and take his call outside and gave me a voucher to see the movie another time without the distraction.
that's my 2 cents... ;)
Well, in case y'all didn't guess I am the "a friend, coworker, and fellow blogger" Troy mentions.
1) Obviously I think he should pay the fine and suck up the points on his license because:
a) He did something wrong and should pay (pun intended) the consequences regardless of the technicalities
b) If in fact the ticket is properly issued, Troy might be in Phoenix like Jim Morrison was in Miami - a marked man who would run the risk of puishment if he returned (OK, so Troy didn't flash his piruli to thousands of people, but still)- only to be pardoned by the Governor of Arizona 30+ years after his death! And that would just suck, dontcha think?
2) If strangers were swearing around me and I actually noticed (you know me - I miss a lot), I would first give them the Hilda Glare of Death (patent pending), if that didn't work I'd say something like, "Excuse me, can you please cool it with the language?" (hopefully 6'5" hubby would be with me to give my request some added oomph). If the cursing continued and it was really bothering me I would complain to whoever is in charge.
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