Category: Life

Life, Safe Driving

Student Driver

Anthony Dixon

 

 

Not having one Accident charged to you covering in excess of one million miles with a Star printed on your Drivers License is an accomplishment in itself. The Star indicates to the Officer pulling me over that I am a safe Driver. By Driving in all kinds of Weather with all kinds of Drivers for fifty years have given me the confidence to be relaxed under all circumstances. My Driving Instructor told me to always look out for the other Guy, I am never concerned about me having an Accident. On the other hand I am always anticipating bad Drivers, to the point of knowing their moves before they make them. It is tough being vigilant all the time, but that’s how you avoid accidents. My Driving Instructor told me to always Drive like I am the only one out there that knows what I am doing. I followed his advice from Day one of getting my License, and that is what has brought us to this point. When I consider stop writing Blogs about safe Driving I remembered this Nurse I met in Pennsylvania. She was in her thirties, she never had a Driver’s License and told me that she never would own one. Curiously I inquired why, she explained that there were too many bad Drivers on the Roadways and that she never would be comfortable behind the Wheel. I promised her that I would teach her to Drive and to be comfortable behind the Wheel. That never happened because I moved to Florida within the year.

 

 

Incidentally I thought my Wife to Drive thirty seven years ago. The night before her Road test I took her on the Highway to give her confidence, so she could be relaxed behind the Wheel, the Road Test was nothing compared to the rigorous training passed down from my Driving Instructor. She also have no Accident charged to Her. She was very fortunate to have me teaching her everything my Driving Instructor thought me. Most People weren’t fortunate to have my Driving Instructor. He told me that whenever I got behind I should loose the Attitudes including the Childish ones thinking that Driving is a game. He said that if there was something consuming your thoughts, whenever you get behind the wheel put them on the Backburner. This Man had insights, thirty years before bad behavior behind the Wheel was given a name, he told me the importance of courtesy.

 

 

He said that having a Bad Attitude behind the Wheel can get you killed, Hence Road Rage is born. The only attitude I have behind the Wheel is, I treat them all as if they were Student Drivers. There are many good Student Drivers out there, I was one. I am in no way undermining someone learning to Drive. However I Abhor People who Drives that way all their lives. I learned quickly so my Instructor had no anxieties and so spending time to indoctrinate me about the Road and how to stay alive. By treating each Vehicle I approach like the Operator was a Student Driver have saved my Life many times. You can’t go blazing through City Streets and intersection, even if you have the right of way. The couple of seconds it takes to take your foot off the Gas and cover your Brakes is well worth your Life.

 

 

 

The Streets in lower Manhattan is old and poorly designed, danger lurks at each Intersection. One day I approach this particular intersection where I could not see five feet of the opposing Traffic. When that occurrs you treat the intersection like a Roundabout, the Driver to the right has the right of way. At this perilous Intersection I decided to give up my right of way, count to ten then continue with the right of way. Within that ten seconds a Truck ran the Stop Sign taking away my right of way and almost my Life. Lesson learned, treat all Intersection with caution and respect. This is why I treat them all like Children/ Student Driver, always expect them to do the wrong things,  back off and give them Room to burn themselves out, and that is exactly what you do with Road Rage Idiots.

 

 

 

Bad Driving is an Epidemic, Defensive Driving saves Lives. The Highway Fatalities statistics are high in my Neck of the Woods. Each and every time I get behind the wheel for my one hour Commute, making it from point A to point B without a scratch is my only objective. I am never late or in a hurry, Zipping through congested areas is a Fools way of Traveling. I save my Speed for the Highway at three A.M. My car does 170, I have taken it halfway to blow out the Cobwebs and that’s far as it will ever go. Us 19 is my Main Drag, it’s posted 45 and 55 , yet many People have taken lives and lost their Lives doing 100. Do you still wonder why I treat my fellow Drivers with such Skepticism that they aren’t going to do the right thing.

 

 

 

Many of them are like little Kids in an Adult Body unable to make Rational Decisions especially when it comes to Driving. Today while going to work I noticed a Woman combining her Hair while weaving the Traffic twenty MPH over the speed limit. Getting up a half an Hour won’t kill you, chasing that lost time will kill you and others. If she had gone to Driving School I am quite sure that her Instructor would have told her that Multitasking behind the Wheel is a Fool’s way of operating a Vehicle.

 

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This short Video shows exactly why I treat my fellow Drivers like Student Drivers. Twelve O’clock at night wide open Road, four cars on the Road and there is a Traffic congestion. The three cars in front of me occupied all three lanes and are driving at the same speed. The speed limit is 45 and neither was smart enough to take the lead of chose to follow. In Rush Hour this type of mindless driving sets up accident by People squeezing them to get through. Treating them like Student Drivers I waited patiently instead of blowing my Horn and bringing out the Road Rage Beast. After one mile of waiting for an opening I passed them safely. Once I make the lead I always travel ten MPH Over the speed limit to avoid people who travel like Sheep. Unsurprisingly one of the Sheep picked up the Chase and followed me closely for the next twenty miles, then passed me at twenty MPH over the speed limit. Other than driving like Student Drivers, they drive with piss poor attitudes that they are not supposed to be passed. This is the same Idiot who was doing 45 on an open Road, I detected an Attitude and another Road Rage Monster. If this can happen 12 O’clock at night imagine how many Student Drivers with bad attitudes are out there at 8 A.M. finally, the life you save may be your own, stay away from people who drives like Student Drivers with bad attitudes. Space yourself properly until it is safe to pass them. Once I am in the lead I accelerate to ten MPH beyond the speed limit to leave the clutter behind. And that is how I managed to Drive over a million miles with no Accidents, by not being part of the problem.

 

Insanity! Doing the same thing over and again, each time looking for different results ( Albert Einstein)

Life

Guns Don’t Kill- Or do they?

Anthony Dixon

Guns Don’t kill- Or Do they?

 


I had promised myself that this would be the only Blog written by me on the Subject of Gun Control. In Light of Activities in the past Months and Year, I decided to make some changes and reblog this Post.

Among the most intelligent and the most rational of us mental illness crops up from nowhere, without a warning. It doesn’t even take mental illness to tip some of us off, sometimes a bad day Will do it. With some people a bad attitude is all it takes to send them off in a murderous rampage. With a gun handily available rationality is out the window. Let’s look at crimes of passion and vengeance, these people aren’t thinking about punishment, all they know is something needs to be done and they have a gun. After the carnage back to reality they realize that without having a gun readily available their loved ones or enemies would still be alive. With all the stark reality gun lobbyists never stop pushing the idea of a gun in each household. Everyone does not possess the Level Headedness or Temperance to own a Gun.

The President say that the victims have the support of the Nation. Does he means that we are going to push for strict gun control laws, does he means that we are going to get automatic weapons off the street and out of the hands of every Nut with an ax to grind. The enthusiast waves the second  Amendment . After each disaster as the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando the question is asked, how can this be prevented in the  future.  Getting every automatic weapons off the Street would be a start , only law-enforcement agencies should have them .



When I worked with Mark Harshberger he bragged to me that he owned over one hundred guns, he was an avid activist of the second amendment. One day at work a minor confrontation developed between us, to my surprise he offered me six bullets from his forty five that he carried daily. It was at that point I realized that Guns don’t kill, only Crazy People who are allowed to have them.





Keeping in mind that the most rational of us gets his pride hurt, out the holster comes the gun as it did in a movie theater in Tampa where a retired police officer involved in an altercation with another patron pulled his gun, shot and killed him in front of his infant child, his wife and scores of other horrified patrons. This one incident left scars on my brain, knowing that cops are trained in the use of firearms and the burdens of frivolously and callously discharging them. If a Cop can pull his gun and fire in a movie theater, where does it leaves the average Nut with a gun. God help us all. The history of people going off the deep end in this country, taking a high vantage point on a building and creating carnage is in huge volume. Look at the Las Vegas shooter, no one knows what set him off and may never know. Regardless look at the arsenal he brought with him, enough to start a war. Forget disarmament, it would cause civil war. All I am concerned with is availability.





The gun manufacturers have to make their profits, only a revolution can bring blind profit and warmongers who have to sell their products or close shop. Never happen, too much money. They don’t care if their products are handed out on a street corner, pretty much the same when junior a family friend, coming home on furlough after Boot Camp. Traveled through Texas, got possession of a shotgun within a one hour stopover, brings it home, shoots off three fingers that I picked up and put on ice and take to the ambulance who left them behind. Now he was damaged goods, the U.S. Army prosecutes him and put him in jail, how about the person who sold him the Gun, eighteen years old. I have seen the damage .





When I was fourteen across the street from my house, A Detective came for a neighbor of mine, dead or alive, the man choose death charging the officer with a machete. The officer aimed to save the man by taking a lower shot to the groin, slow death waiting for the ambulance. Still fourteen going to the funeral of two brothers who were gunning for me for beating their baby brother badly and embarrassed him. The brothers both caught sixteen bullets each at a party that I had planned to visit ,their faces were dimpled with bullet holes. That’s how bad men end in gang warfare, I was intrigued by Gang Life at fourteen going to that Funeral changed the rest of my Life. Don’t tell me that Guns don’t kill. At fourteen I made the decision, never to own a gun, one reason is if you kicked my ass and I know where you live, I would go home get my gun and shoot you. Everyone shouldn’t have a gun, I was true to myself. Those inalienable rights were given to the settlers to protect themselves from the Red Coats  the natives and ourselves. So put that in your Tea Cup and sip that. I have mentioned Mark Harshbarger in other Blogs. When I worked with Mark on Construction Sites, many Days he had either a Rifle or a Forty Five in his Truck.

 

 

 Sometimes the Truck was Locked sometimes not. Of all the places to have a Gun, this is not the Place. Construction Workers are Dimwits, I worked in the Industry for many Years. Fighting is not irregular, Mark was an Avid Hunter and Fisherman, he was skilled with Firearms. He once told me that He always bragged of his  one Hundred Guns. He was also a Lifelong Member of N.R.A.  On the last of many Hunting Trips  to Canada with his Wife Marybeth, he was shot and killed by her. Mark have Bragged to me of Marybeth’s shooting skills, hitting Bullseye at over fifteen hundred yards. At the time of Mark’s Death his Life Insurance was close to a Million. It is said that she was having an Affair with his Brother. Her Defense, she thought she was shooting at a Bear, less than fifty yards in the Twilight Dusk. she shot and killed him claiming that it was an accident. Yet people like Mark argues that we want to take away their rights to bear arms, he died with his convictions. It behooves me how these activists think, all we are asking is stronger restrictions to the availability of automatic weapons and the ease of ownership overall.
when things happen, I would wonder how and why. Not in Mark’s Case, you Live by the Gun, you die by the Gun. That is all I have to say on the subject, Mark’s inalienable rights to Live was taken away by one of his one Hundred Guns.