To the Editor:
I read in your May 28 issue the reports from the three police stations, namely Waldoboro, Damariscotta and Lincoln County Sheriff departments and their list of people they issued seatbelt violations to. The total number was 108.
You would think, with all the crime infested towns, cities and states, police would concentrate their time on more important issues than wearing of a seatbelt. The reason being is, at $100 a pop, this is easy money for Baldacci for his perks.
What the problem is, is whether you wear a seatbelt or not, should be a personal choice, not a choice made by politicians. People call this state and United States, a free place to live. Let me tell you, it is anything but that.
As long as I’m following the rules of the road, not speeding, not driving after drinking, not driving irrationally, my car is in good physical condition, my car is inspected and registered, it’s nobody’s business what I do inside of it. All it is is a big money game.
I’ve seen many accidents in my life and some of the people would have been killed, had they been wearing a seatbelt. The news media are just as bad. They report it if the person killed “wasn’t” wearing a seatbelt, but they never say, “he was wearing a seatbelt” when he was killed. When they don’t report one way or the other, whether the person that was killed was or wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, I take it as they were wearing one.
I think it is about time that all news media be made to tell it like it is, and that being, “whether or not” the people killed in automobile accidents, were or were not wearing seatbelts. Let’s level the playing field a little bit and not have it all one-sided.
The bottom line is this, stop telling me what I can do with my personal life, or, consider this supposedly free society that we live in, as really what it is, and that being a dictatorship. What’s the next thing, come into my house and tell me what I can do?
Hal Thayer, Whitefield
