To the person who passed the moronic, inconsiderate, arrogant and easily distracted buffoon in Driver’s Education, I hate you.

You are partially responsible for putting another imbecile behind the wheel and giving them the power to take someone’s life at will.

You suck, whoever you are.

Of course, I am being far too harsh and simple-minded because how can it possibly be the instructor’s fault?

No. The only people to blame when it comes to inept and dangerous driving are the drivers themselves.

Naturally we are all going to put on a show for the instructors because we want our license, our second form of identification and our source to infinite freedom.

But we abuse that freedom and have the audacity to blame someone else for our own mistakes.

We are a disgusting species.

What I fail to understand time and time again is how people can be so irresponsible when it comes to driving, myself included. Why do we take for granted the power we have when we operate such heavy machinery that half of us do not know how to fix?

When you put that thought into perspective, the thoughts that follow afterward are terrifying—even more terrifying than the graphic commercials that show the consequences of a distracted driver because the thoughts never end.

It is not like we were not taught about the rules of the road and the consequences that unravel based on the decisions we make while driving.

So then why is it that the first thought to travel across the foreground of our minds is “Man, I hope I don’t get pulled over for speeding,” instead of “Man, I’m speeding, let me slow down so I don’t kill someone today”?

It is almost as if we are raised to believe that we no longer have to be responsible for our actions and to not care about the stranger next to us.

For example, when I was driving to work on Tuesday, a car did not wait long enough at the stop sign and almost t-boned me as I turned (since I had the right of way). Luckily we both stopped and as most of us have done, I said a few choice words and blamed the other person and I am sure they did the same.

Now, though we avoided a collision, who really was to blame? The person who did not wait long enough to see if there were any more cars coming or me for not slowing down to make sure someone did not blow the stop sign?

If I had been going any faster, I know I would not have been able to stop in time to avoid being hit, and that rattles me. But what shocks me the most is my reaction. I should be thankful that we both stopped and thought about being a safer driver, but instead I got angry at the other driver and I got angry that I was late for work, and that is alarming.

Driving is a two way street (no pun intended), which is why we all need to be observant and courteous to the individual in the car next to us.

Put the cell phone away, slow it down and pay attention while driving because it should not have to take a near death experience to make me or anyone else feel the need to drive safer.

Analicia Haynes is a junior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].