..if it's going to hurt..
JANUARY 12, 2008 (SATURDAY)
Another person has been killed on a Houston freeway while attempting to run across it. That’s three people in recent weeks. The same phenomenon occurs on freeways throughout the country. One has to ask, “Why would anyone risk his life running across a freeway?”
In San Diego, the problem became so acute in 1990 that a local company put up signs (see on right) warning motorists about pedestrians. Smugglers of illegal aliens would suddenly come to a stop and order the people (families in most instances) out of the car and yell at them to run to the beach, and then up the beach to rejoin the smuggler on the freeway a few miles north. In many instances the people had never seen a freeway and did not know what it was; they thought it was a “wide avenue.” Homeland Security has since more or less ended the practice. Sadly, the picture on the signs has taken a life of its own and now appears on T-shirts, etc. as a joke. It’s no laughing matter when people are killed.
So, back to the question, “Why would a pedestrian venture onto a busy freeway?” I suppose the answer is different in each case. So, I’ll go on to ask, “Why would any of us do stupid and irrational things?”
Sometimes, we hurt only ourselves, like when we're old and climb upon the roof and fall off. (I've even heard of a guy who climbed upon a swivel chair; who could be so stupid?)If we are fortunate, we live but usually end up with broken bones. From our beds, we spend our nights asking, “How could I have been so stupid? Why did I do that?”
Ah, but the plot thickens. Suppose what you did was not a simple thing like climbing? Suppose it was something illegal, dishonest or immoral? The consequences can be disastrous, as this tombstone shows:
"Here lies Pa
Pa liked women
Ma caught Pa in with two swimmin'
Here lies Pa"
We all know about irrational actions by somebody – maybe ourselves – that just don’t make sense. When asked why it was done, the answer goes back to our childhood: “I don’t know.”
So, look before you leap. Don’t run across the freeway. Don’t climb on the roof. And don’t .. well, you know.