Please Don't Litter

The bumper stickers and decals make it sound like a polite request: Please don't litter. I don't. I have proof in my truck. Trust me, there is a floor under all the garbage.

Drive down the road a bit, and you'll see a nice, white sign that reads "$100 FINE FOR LITTERING."

Nice and polite just turned into ugly and threatening. Why?

Didn't everyone's momma teach their children where to throw their trash? No, probably not, or littering is something teenagers do to rebel. Or maybe some people would rather not use the floor of their vehicles as rolling garbage cans like I do.

But, is it that big of a problem? Sure, it could be and it would be if everyone just forgot their good sense and started throwing trash wherever and whenever. I sure don't see it as that big of a problem, and it gives the prisoners a way to get out in the sun while wearing their fashionable striped outfits. And yes, if everyone thoughtlessly pitched their trash, it would definitely begin to have an impact on everyone's lives. So, as far as rules go, it's a good one.

I sure do like it a lot better when I'm politely asked not to litter. Not that I would anyway. But, I am tempted to rebel and toss something, anything out the window when I'm threatened with a fine or threatened with arrest.

Fear stops me dead in my tracks, and my rebellion dies down. If I did manage to get pulled over for littering, which I won't because I don't, I'd be a bit nervous, just like any other time I've been pulled over.

If I was doing something 'wrong,' I admit it right away and get on with the process. I was stopped twice for the same blown-out brake light. The first time, I was shaking in my shoes because I had no idea why I was being pulled over.

I was stopped one time after playing in a town over an hour's drive from home and because my eyes were shot from very dried out contact lenses, I had to go through the sobriety test. I was tired, my back hurt, it wasn't the best of nights playing, and I was worried about being too tired to drive. So, I got belligerent. I told the cop to wait a few minutes for my bass player who will be driving by because he's about as drunk as you can get and still walk, I was so pissed.

After another night of playing, I sat at this red light not a half mile from home, and the dang thing wouldn't give me a green. Again, I was tired, my back was killing me, and I had to pee like crazy. After sitting there for as long as I could tolerate, I looked around, saw no one, and went through the light and turned up my road. I get a couple hundred yards up the road, and you guessed it, I was pulled over. "I gotta pee, yes I ran the stuck light, just got done playing all night, didn't drink and please, if you want to talk with me, can you follow me to my house so that I can at least pee?" Flashlight hit my back seat with my guitars, microphone stand, chord bag, then straight into my eyes and then flashed onto the tags on my windshield.

I see a uniform and I am immediately uncomfortable. Casualty of my hippy days, I suppose. Hippies are always, always afraid of anything resembling The Establishment. I have no idea what that means, but I caught the fear of the uniform anyway.

What I don't get, what totally boggles my mind, is why it is illegal to drive without a seatbelt. I can understand suspicion of driving while intoxicated as a reason to pull someone over, and I'm damned glad that happens. A drunk could kill my son or me or you or your kids or pets or ... Idiots drive drunk. But to be pulled over, cited and fined for not wearing a seatbelt? Who does that hurt?

Only me. It wouldn't even have an effect on passengers in my car if I wasn't wearing a seatbelt. It sure doesn't have an effect on other drivers because I'm not driving impaired. So, what is the point? The Establishment is so concerned about my life that they feel I need to be pulled over, cited and fined for endangering myself? I doubt it.

You know, as soon as we start taking away a right, it becomes much easier to take away another and another and another until we are no longer free. As soon as you think that your rights are more important than my rights is when neither one of us are free.

Maybe none of this ridiculousness would've started if we had only listened to our mothers. And, goshdarnit, just throw your trash on the car floor!