To the New York TImes: TALKING ON CELL PHONES WHILE DRIVING

California

July 21st, 2009

7:21 am

I am a 57 year old woman, well educated and travelled. I am well informed in general. I listen to NPR, watch CNN, read the LA Times as well as the NY Times. I vote in every election. I am a mother, a wife, a teacher.

I also have a beloved iPhone.

I will say honestly that I have texted two times in the last month while driving. You know. Just a few words. I have used my \"hands free\" device every work day to make \"neccessary\" phone calls. My hands free device has fallen out of my ear so I had to reach to pick it back up, taking my eyes off the road, many times.

I beleive talking on the phone is extremely distracting and should be against the law.

What if someone called you to tell you a loved one had been killed by a texting driver?

Do you think you can really drive well and watch out for dangerous drivers while someone is telling you about Aunt Mary's latest faux pas or your date is telling you he wants to get married?

There has got to be a way to stop me (and others) from texting and talking on the phone. Maybe random searcheds by police? Lets say it was illegal to have a phone in the car. Maybe cars could have a signal to remove a phone from a car before it will drive. I am deadly serious.

“Dear Governor Schwartzeneger,

In my dream you were the best governor we’ve ever had. You probably had

that dream too. Too bad is was just a dream. I suspended my criticism of you and your policies for years because you seemed to be a new kind of conservative, more centrist than others. So we have a few differences of opinion, no problem, I thought. We have that even with our pets.

Now I am very angry indeed. I am an elementary school teacher. I hope you know that our anger is not about the money we are loosing. Believe me, we have never earned enough to have it be an issue. We manage what we do with money that we find in other places, sometimes our own. We work for our children to do the best we can for them. We make things with our hands. We go to the $.99 as much as possible. The parents of our students bring us paper.

Now you have spoken of suspending Proposition 98 and you have threatened the California Teachers Assn. You have attacked us through our TVs, with mean and dirty commercials, spending taxpayer’s money as a weapon against ourselves. Democrats advocate new taxes on oil and tobacco. I think that is a great idea. We have college age kids (we might have to pull out of school because we can’t pay their tuition, by the way) who abuse alcohol and tobacco. To make it harder to buy would be nice.

This phobia against raising taxes has got to stop. There are many places we

can raise taxes. Tobacco and alcohol are not our only vices. We buy designer clothes when we should use J. Crew or Urban Outfitters. We travel first class when we could go coach. We buy gas guzzling expensive cars when we could all get much more affordable hybrids. There are so many “luxury” areas of commerce that should be taxed. How

about the new airline for pets?! Please tell me that is a necessity.

Cuts and layoffs in LAUSD schools are among the last ways the state should use to pay off the deficit. We have no summer school this year. Our poor families

don’t know where to put their children while they work. It is a choice of where to leave their children or lose their jobs. Our special ed teachers were laid off. We have no art programs. Even the music has ceased.

Is this a pretty picture? Would you want to have your children in this situation?

As an immigrant, are you different just because you landed a job in a movie all about your built up body? Do you think you are really any different from all the children I teach?

Please don’t punish our school system anymore. I am begging you. We have no supplies. We have no summer program. We have no tutors. We have no teacher’s assistants and we don’t have enough teachers. Soon we won’t have enough public schools. What kind of a world is this? Is the TERMINATOR coming?”

Very sincerely,

Elizabeth Brady Woods