As We Drive We Will Not Text

196,165,667 drivers licenses were active in the U.S in the year 2003. As many of you who have driven on the road know, at least thirty percent of those drivers cannot properly operate a motor vehicle. Compounding with the problem of general bad driving there is often another factor of distraction. Whether plucking their nose hairs, or digging through a bag of food people who drive poorly almost always find a way to fill of their driving time with another activity that further reduces their ability to drive properly. The days of simple distractions have been over for a few years now since our cell phones became like living breathing extensions of our being. Now an individual can navigate the public roadways while cruising myspace comments and texting friends, lovers, or KGB. The problem is that this issue is far more common than one would suspect. I assure you that if I put to test your honesty and posed the question of whether or not you had at one time or another engaged it texting or other activities on your cellphone while driving, the vast majority would have some confessions to make. In recent years many fatal accidents have occurred due to texting while driving, and the number keeps growing. In recent years, the awareness of this issue has risen but not quickly enough. In recent years many states have passed legislation on the issue and imposed stiff penalties for texting while driving. But is this enough? No. With a simple bit of good sense, compassion, and responsibility when it comes to driving the problem vanishes altogether. We must all remember that when we get behind the wheel it is not only our life we are looking out for; it is also the lives of the fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters that occupy the streets around us. We must consider the power which we are given when we are allowed to drive. We must grant that power an equal measure of responsibility. While this issue will continue to burn on into the horizon for a great deal of time, we can all proactively join an effort to stop this sort of dangerous habit in our own lives by issuing a pledge to ourselves and to those around us that as we drive we will not text.