Texting While Driving

Texting Bill Becomes Law:

Governor Rick Scott signed Florida's texting bill making Florida the 41st state to enact a texting while driving  law.   The law makes reading or sending text, email, or instant messages on a smartphone a secondary offense.  That means police have to first stop drivers for another offense.  Florida's seatbelt law began as a secondary offense, but is now a primary offense.  The texting law is likely to take the same route.   It took five tries to pass the law with House Republican conservatives worried about government intrusion into people's lives.  The House did add a provision allowing police to use drivers' mobile phone records against them only when texting causes a crash resulting  in death or personal injury.

In Florida in 2012 there were 256,443 crashes.  Of these 4841 involved a driver texting or otherwise using an electronic communication device.  That is 1.9% .   According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates the trucking industry, drivers who text take their eyes off the road for almost 5 seconds.  At 55 mph a driver can travel the length of a football field while not looking. 

Clearly texting while driving is not a good idea.  In a survey 87% of teens think driving while texting is dangerous.  Yet, 80% of teenage girls and 58% of teenage boys admitted texting while behind the wheel.  So, we need to give what should be common sense  the force of law.   This is what I call a "Wait till your father gets home!" law.   We try to legislate common sense and responsibility.  We ask the state to do what we as parents cannot, or we as adults will not do: motivate people to do what is  correct, moral and responsible only the state does it under penalty of law.

At it's core texting while driving is about driving while distracted.   The government website Distraction.gov defines a driving distraction as "any activity that could divert a person's attention from the primary task of driving."  They list the following activities as driving distractions:

Texting                                                           Reading, including maps
Using a cell phone or smartphone                 Using a navigation system
Eating and drinking                                       Watching a video  
Talking to passengers                                     Adjusting a radio, CD player, or MP3 player
Grooming

So, Florida, keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel.  Oh yeah, and keep your mouth shut.   Drive safely!

Should Guantanamo Bay detention camp be closed?

 

Should Guantanamo Bay detention center be closed?

The Guantanamo Bay Naval Station (GTMO also known as "Gitmo") was established in 1898 when the U.S. took control of Cuba from Spain following the Spanish American War.  Gitmo covers about 45 square miles.  A perpetual lease for the area around Guantanamo Bay was offered  in 1903 by Tomas Estrada Palma, the first president of Cuba. 

The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the U.S. military located within the Guantanamo  Bay Naval Base.  It was established in January of 2002 during the Bush administration to hold detainees connected to the Global War on Terror, which includes Afghanistan, Iraq, the Horn of Africa, and Southeast Asia.  It is operated by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo of the U.S. government. 

On June 22, 2009 President Barak Obama signed an order to suspend proceeding of the Guantanamo military commission for 120 days and to shut down the facility within the year.  This never happened.  With 100 detainees now on a hunger strike with 23 being force fed, the issue of closing Gitmo is before us again.

Well, I thought about that .......Here's what I think.

Close Guantanamo Bay detention camp immediately!

Since 2002 779 detainees have been brought to Guantanamo.   Most have been released without charge.  Only 3 have ever been convicted of any crime.  As of March 2013 only 166 remain.

Current and former prisoners have complained of abuse and torture.   In 2005 an Amnesty International report called the Guantanamo Bay detention camp the "gulag" of our time.   In 2006 the United Nations called unsuccessfully for the camp to be closed.    One judge observed, "America's idea of what is torture.... does not appear to coincide with that of most  civilized nations." 

In May of 2009 the U.S. Senate passed an Amendment to block funds needed for the transfer or release of prisoners.  In February of 2011 then Secretary of Defense Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "The prospects for closing Guantanamo as best I can tell you are very, very low given the very broad opposition to do that here in Congress. 

The idea that these detainees need to be tried by military commission is not correct.  Federal courts hear terrorism cases constantly.  There is no reason to think they cannot handle the cases coming out of Guantanamo.  The detainees have no prospect for release.  They are being held indefinitely.  It is widely recognized that the extralegal detention of Muslims has become an important source for extremist recruiters and a source of America's diminished moral standing in the world. 

Dr. Alia Brahimi, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford has written,  "Guantanamo was established in the name of civilization.  The Bush administration claimed it was the custodian of civilization against forces of barbarism.  They argued that we are allowed to break civilized rules because we are the good guys defending civilization.  The closing of Guantanamo will set free 166 souls from the cruelty of this irony so will it liberate the U.S. from the strains of  moral hypocrisy, and enable us to lay claim to being civilized once more."

President Obama has said this past week that the Guantanamo prison is "inefficient",  inspires new terrorists, alienates our allies, and "is contrary to who we are".  I agree!