Friday, January 2, 1998

Driving concept

I have discovered an amazing, new, innovative driving technique that will probably set Abilene on its ear.

The concept is this: When cruising down the Interstate or freeway in the right lane, change lanes, speed up or slow down to accommodate merging on-ramp traffic!

Now, I know some of you are thinking, "Freeway traffic has the right of way; why should I accommodate merging traffic?"

The answer is this: When at cruising speed, you can change speed or direction easily. Merging traffic has to accelerate to match highway speed, and when confronted with high-speed traffic that has a "merging is their problem" attitude, sudden stops, lane changes and "jumping" into a lane are all potentially deadly possibilities, both to merging and highway traffic.

Ignoring on-ramps because you "can" is, in this context, analogous to running over a jaywalking pedestrian because you have the right of way. I have lived in Dallas, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Austin, and I have never seen a harder place to merge onto the freeway than Abilene.

In conclusion, I would like to note that those drivers who ignore on-ramps because they "can" are probably the same drivers who curse and get apoplectic when they have to stand on their brakes to avoid running into a safety barrier, or get rear-ended by other drivers, when they themselves try to merge!

DAVID BRYAN MOORE

Abilene

Via e-mail

Social Security mess

In response to Glen Harper's Dec. 22 letter blaming the upcoming Social Security mess on the baby boomers:

I'm a so-called boomer of 50 who went to work at 16. I have unwillingly contributed in excess of $300,000 to the federal government and to this date have not received one dime from it -- no subsidies, no loans, no unemployment, no food stamps, etc. And I don't think there will be any money available when I reach retirement age.

The federal government substantially raised the Social Security withholding rate in the 1980s for the stated purpose of using it to pay the boomers when they reach retirement age. Those funds were subsequently loaned to the federal government and spent; all that is there now are IOUs.

Harper's justifiable anger should be directed at the true villains, the politicians who act like drunken sailors with our precious, hard-earned money.

Everything we have -- every building, road, school, technological and medical advancement -- is the accumulation of this generation's and every previous generation's money and sweat.

We all owe the previous generations something.

ALAN MILNE

Abilene

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