Click it or Ticket

Click it or ticket. I understand that this has become a national campaign.

If I climb into my metal and glass cocoon and roll down the road without fastening my safety belt, I run the risk a police officer noticing this and giving me a ticket with an attendant hefty fine. This strikes me as absolutely hilarious, because I also ride a motorcycle.

Here in Texas, we have no helmet law, which means I can climb on my motorcycle wearing nothing more protective than a pair of shorts, and no police will harass me. And I have literally seen just that.

I saw a guy riding barefoot down interstate 35 in Dallas wearing a pair of shorts, a pair of sunglasses, and nothing else. Going 70 mph. The only thing he could have gotten a ticket for that day was the speed. The lack of protective gear would not have raised an eyebrow from a cop.

I must admit that I have absolutely no understanding of this. Why is it that I have the freedom to splatter myself unprotected over a quarter mile of highway while riding my motorcycle, but I do not have the freedom to be comparatively safe while riding seatbeltless in my car?

It puts me in mind of a bumper sticker I once saw: People are opposed to fur and not leather because it is safer to harass rich old women than biker gangs.

Perhaps that same thinking goes into the seatbelt and helmet laws.