No shame

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Frank McClendon

I’m thinking about making my interaction with stop lights optional. Same with stop signs.

If it fits my schedule, and if I have a little extra time on my hands, I’ll stop. But if I have other things to do, or if I’m in a hurry, or if I just don’t feel like stopping is the right thing to do for me, I won’t.

I’ve been pondering this move for awhile. It has always been an annoying time-suck for me to be stopped randomly when I’m running late for lunch. But I knew it was the right call after reading an online neighborhood brawl over a pickup truck parked in a handicapped space outside a Starbucks.

Apparently, the truck’s driver decided that, despite not having a handicapped sticker or license plate, using the space for a short period of time would be fine.

A well-meaning neighbor, noticing the infraction, posted a picture of the truck on Facebook. But the neighbor didn’t stop there: He did a little research and identified the truck owner’s name and business, suggesting online that anyone willing to park illegally in a handicapped space wasn’t worth being patronized.

I wasn’t offended by any of this. The truck driver was clearly wrong, and the neighbor was just making the digital equivalent of a citizen’s arrest by calling attention to a crime.

But an awful lot of people in this forum felt otherwise. Some piled on the neighbor for “cowardly” publicizing the infraction online as opposed to walking up to the truck’s owner in person and calling him out.

Others were offended by outing the guy’s business — why, they grumbled, should his employees and family be deprived of income just because the guy parked in the wrong parking spot?

It was pretty entertaining reading, in a train-wreck-is-beautiful kind of way, and it made me realize something: A lot of us don’t believe the law needs to be interpreted literally.

Illegally parking in a handicapped space isn’t the right thing to do, but apparently shaming someone for violating that law isn’t right, either.

There’s a lot of that type of thinking going on these days. We’re using religion, in some cases, and personal values, in others, to justify doing what we think is right as opposed to following the rule

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Greg Kinney

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Michele Paulda

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EDITORIAL publisher: Christina Hughes Babb

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469.916.7864 / ewilliams@advocatemag.com contributing editors: Sally Wamre of law. We’re kind of conscientiously objecting to laws we don’t believe are right and, therefore, shouldn’t apply to us. contributors: Angela Hunt, Lauren Law, George Mason, Kristen Massad, Brent McDougal photo editor: Danny Fulgencio

All of which brings me back to my new red light philosophy. I’ve told you publicly of my plans, so I don’t want any complaining later when I exercise my rights to sidestep the law if I feel it’s necessary.

Just keep an eye out for me at intersections, and don’t even think about filing a claim against my insurance policy. I’m not so sure that being forced to pay for insurance is a good idea, either.

Rick Wamre is president of Advocate Media. Let him know how we are doing by emailing rwamre@advocatemag.com.

214.635.2121 / danny@advocatemag.com contributing photographers: Rasy Ran, Kathy Tran

Advocate, © 2017, is published monthly by East Dallas – Lakewood People Inc. Contents of this magazine may not be reproduced. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for the content of all advertisements printed, and therefore assume responsibility for any and all claims against the Advocate. The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any editorial or advertising material. Opinions set forth in the Advocate are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the publisher’s viewpoint. More than 200,000 people read Advocate publications each month. Advertising rates and guidelines are available upon request. Advocate publications are available free of charge throughout our neighborhoods, one copy per reader. Advocate was founded in 1991 by Jeff Siegel, Tom Zielinski and Rick Wamre.