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Driving is a Privilege

Too many of us, if not all, never acknowledge or conveniently forget that driving is a privilege not a right.

It is not a God-given right. It is not a birth right. It is not a constitutionally-mandated right.

The legal ability to operate a motorized vehicle is to be earned and maintained through respect and obedience to the laws dictating this privilege. Despite this reality, none of us who do legally possess a Driver's License, ever assess our own driving ability or question whether or not we're good drivers. It's always the other person to whom, in a fit of mini-road-rage, we bark out: Where'd you get your license, K-Mart?', Who taught you to drive, a blind person?', or some other colorful but derogatory remark aimed out of our car window but never into the mirror.

These days, operating a car, truck, mini-van or SUV is enough of a challenge to our central nervous system and muscular reaction time. But when we try to multi-task and add in all of the distractions that too many of us undertake while we're driving eating, drinking, listening to music, talking on a cell phone, talking to others in the car, etc. it's almost unbelievable that accidents aren't constantly occurring and dented, dinked, broken and battered cars aren't lining the streets. The next time that you're driving down a crowded highway take notice of all of the cars on the road around you. Everyone, including you, is an independent factor contributing to potential disaster. Thank goodness that we're at least as fair at driving as we are. But we all could be better. However, there's no organized, mandated motivation for any of us to do so.

We only test a person's knowledge of driving laws and ability to operate a vehicle one time - when he or she is applying for a driver's license? Once the license is awarded, no controls exist except for the oversight of our state and local police forces, who are all too busy with the enforcement of the myriad of other laws and regulations that daily keep us safe and sleeping well at night.

So what's the potential solution to making us all better at exercising this privilege called driving'?

Actually, it's pretty simple in concept - legislatively-mandated retesting for everyone on a regular basis. Of course, implementing such a process would most likely smack up against opposition from seniors who say it's discrimination toward them, and governmental employees who will say it's creating more work for them, or

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