This column has to begin with me making a sincere, heartfelt apology to the members of the Baltimore County Bar Association. I was to speak on the topic "The Rule of Law" at the association's Law Day breakfast Thursday morning, but I didn't make it.
I could offer an excuse, but I remember what Staff Sgt. Wallace Tidwell told me about excuses more than 34 years ago when I entered Air Force boot camp in San Antonio.
The fact is, I just blew it. Usually, I let my wife know about my speaking engagements so that when the date approaches she can jog the old memory for me. But this time around, I passed on bothering the wife and decided I'd remember myself for a change. You can see how well that worked out. (I bought a book once about improving my memory, but I forgot where I put it.)
Now that I've apologized, it seems proper for me to let the bar association members know what they would have heard if I didn't have a mind like a sieve. Since the topic was "The Rule of Law," I'd have begun my speech by telling members that Americans might be only a generation or two from asking the question, "The rule of WHAT?"
Is it just me, or has anybody else noticed that America is becoming a society where it's all the rage for people to pick and choose which laws they'll obey and which ones they won't?
I was driving east on Belvedere Avenue one day when I stopped for a red light where the street runs into Northern Parkway. The sign there is big enough for any literate driver to read clearly: "No Turn On Red, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m." (I guess I'll give my position now: Illiterate people really shouldn't be driving.)
Now, I'd seen drivers completely ignore that sign and make illegal turns on red between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. before. But this particular day -- around high noon, sunny, with nary a cloud in the sky -- one of these scofflaws was behind me, angrily honking his horn for me to make the right turn on red so he could follow.
I ignored the dolt, who eventually swung around me and made the illegal turn on red. This character didn't just want to break the law himself; he wanted me to join him. There seem to be scores of these characters out there. That sign saying there's no turn on red between certain hours? Hey, why not ignore it?
