The Challenges of Having Common Sense in a Nonsensical Society

There is a massive budget crisis in the State of Illinois. There is talk of laying off State workers, freezing pay raises and enforcing furlough days (unpaid days off). Not that long ago, the former Governor was flying to and from Springfield versus living in the fully staffed Governor's mansion, which I have heard is quite lovely. Hello? How did that make sense? Most people I know, including State employees, don't have their commute paid for. I have a feeling that if I tried to submit for my 8 mile round trip commute on my taxes, the IRS would coming knocking on my door.

There are things I don't engage in for fear of being caught, arrested, found guilty by a jury of my peers and imprisoned for the rest of my life. So I avoid shoplifting, illegal drugs, drinking and driving and lewd conduct in public---to name a few. As a law abiding citizen with a good dose of Catholic guilt, I do one thing that is LAW in the State of Illinois. I maintain a valid driver's license and valid car insurance.

Last September, I was driving to work. (Incidentally, I work to help support my family. I have no magical thinking nor powers nor such luck that provides me with a money growing tree or shrub to pluck money from every day.) On the way to work, I encountered a red light with cars ahead of me already stopped at it. RED does means stop! As I began to brake, the light turned green. The driver behind me tried to pass me and hit my passenger side instead. He kept going. I had to wave him over. I called the Police. The other driver did not have a driver's license on his person. He had copies of tickets and told the Police that his license had just been reinstated, so recently, that he had not received it back in the mail yet. The Police took his insurance information but his insurance card had no name or number for an agent. The Police let him drive off with another ticket for his collection. When I looked over the accident report, I inquired about this missing contact information and was told they could no more. After spending about 4 hours making phone calls, it became apparent that this man did not have car insurance. To sum this up, I had to go through my own insurance and had to pay the $500 deductible. I appeared at the scheduled Court date. My car's assailant did not. I spoke to the Judge and asked for a warrant to be sworn out for his arrest as he was driving without insurance which is against the law. The Judge said he could not do that for lack of proof. To this day, I am not really sure how much proof he needed given all the copius notes of contacts I had for him. How is that fair or just to me, not only a victim but also a tax payer? AllState is pursuing him through a collection agency. Good luck with that!

Actually, I later learned from the Secretary of State's office that the Police who responded dropped the ball. All insurance cards are to have the insured car's VIN (vehicle identification number) printed on it. That VIN is to match the VIN on the car and the car's registration. If not, that insurance card is not considered valid. This man did not have a valid card. The Police could have arrested or detained him until gave proof of valid insurance. Please make note of this, hopefully you will never need this information.

I know this man knows he hit my car. He has my phone number. Why not try to make things right and reimburse me? What has happened to taking responsibility for your actions and doing the right thing? Anyone as a child ever been marched over to their neighbor's to apologize for trampling flowers or breaking something on accident? I was and I learned from it.

Taking responsibilty leads me to another topic---teenage girls who want to have babies and get pregnant on purpose. Then who ends up being responsible for the care of those babies? I'll take this topic on later.