LETTER: Violence may be the answer

Editor,

I moved here from Southern California two years ago. There, I grew up in some of the worst traffic our nation can boast; where a 20-minute commute can be stretched into 150 minutes during rush hour, or when traffic is moving, people cut you off left and right. It’s a mess. I would gladly trade all that, however, for the aggravation I meet on Utah highways.

Here, people don’t pass you on the right, then cut back into the fast lane three feet in front of you with about a 50-50 chance of blinker usage. Here they pull up 6 inches off your back bumper and flash their brights at you constantly until you have the common decency, since you’re only going 80 mph, to get out of their way. In California, people rarely come to a full stop at a stop sign. Here, they stop, but don’t wait their turn to go, or somehow cram 17 vehicles behind that one that was actually in the intersection when the light turned red. In California, chaos may reign. Here, there may be order, but part of that order seems to be a complete disregard for others.

I have spent a long time trying to figure out what makes this difference, and the only thing I’ve come up with so far is a great discrepancy in violent crimes. Perhaps I might be able to leave my table at the Hub for 10 seconds while I grab a napkin, if the people who usually steal my table while I’m gone think I’m a drug-crazed lunatic carrying an uzi. Perhaps, since Utahns can’t be polite out of the goodness of their hearts, the threat of death might be the incentive they need.

Now, I’m not usually one to advocate violence, but when I see the callousness and self-absorption of the people here, and hear them bad mouthing my home state for similar faults, I am outraged. I just hope that someday soon they will get a wake-up call. At least we Californians know we’re jerks.

Richard Corley