Running Stop Signs: Early Warnings of a Lawless Society
A Metaphor of Life or Death
Who Stops at Stop Signs?
What is the meaning of a stop sign?
Does anyone in America actually stop at stop signs any more? I mean stop signs are made for stopping, aren't they? Or are they mere suggestions? if no one else is around; if there isn't anyone coming from any of the other three directions, what does it matter if a person stops or not? There is no danger. No harm, no foul, right?
Really...no harm, no foul?
Running Stop Signs: A Metaphor of American Society
Not observing stop signs may be harmless per se, but perhaps the practice is a metaphor for an American society gone awry. Consider the following examples:
- Faced with the opportunity to pad their paychecks with larger commissions, Washington Mutual loan officers ignore an internal audit warning of bad practices in its home mortgage loan division.
- Goldman Sachs purposely sales bad investments to receive commissions and then bets against them to profit from other people's demise.
- Superstar athletes like Pittsburgh Ben Roethlisberger and Golf phenom Tiger Woods ride their hero status into night clubs and cannot so "no" to the pandering groupees.
- Middle class couples with middle class incomes cannot say "no" when offered the chance to own a home with a mortgage of more than 60% of their take-home pay, only to declare bankruptcy three to five years later.
- Men everywhere in America are addicted to internet porn including loving husbands and fathers and religious leaders.
- The average American couple has $15,000 in consumer debt because they never know when to say enough is enough.
Stop Signs Redefined: An American Society on the Right Track
So what is the answer? Well, perhaps the answer comes in redefining what a stop sign is? Instead of thinking of a stop sign as a legal nuisance, perhaps it is better to think of it as a means of protection for you and those in your path ahead.
Stop signs were not set up for the mere sake of laying down another rule; they were installed to protect you and me from harm. They allow the driver to stop and observe his or her surroundings before proceeding ahead; to take a deep breath before continuing on; to think through the next move in order to avoid danger and continue safely, successfully, without unnecessary hassles.
Stops Signs: A Metaphor of a Society in Cooperation Together for the Common Good of All
Stop signs are about a society in cooperation together for everyone's common good.
Obviously, the loan officers at Washington Mutual and the investment bankers at Goldman Sachs were not thinking of the common good of the American people when they purposely sold bad investments knowing those investments would fail. They had their own well-being in mind and it resulted in a fallen economy that wrecked many lives.
Tiger Woods did not have the well-being of his wife and family in mind when he ran the stop signs of fidelity and engaged in multiple affairs around the country and globe.
Redefining the meaning of stop signs and observing them as necessary means of protection rather than inconvenient nuisances of minor consequence will help America to get back on the right track.