“Here comes another one,” he said. “They heard the engine roar as the driver revved the engine. As the vehicle reached the mid-point of the quiet leafy street the engine noise climbed to a scream. “It sounds like one of the jet engines at JFK airport,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Are you ready?” he said. “Yes, all systems go,” she said. They flipped the switch on the shiny metal cube in front of them.<\/p>\n
Inside the speeding vehicle a distracted man in a suit named Joey continued sending a text. He didn’t even bother to look at the road. He glanced at the green traffic light far in the distance. “I gotta make the light,” Joey said to himself.<\/p>\n
He pressed the accelerator down as far as it would go. “Faster, damnit, faster,” he said to himself.<\/p>\n
Suddenly he realized something strange had happened. He sat in the front row of a classroom. “I can barely fit into this desk. It’s for a little kid,” he said. He turned and saw that all the desks in the room had adults squeezed into them. He reached for his cell phone but couldn’t find it. He noticed other people in the room were actually swiping and clicking the air reflexively. “Someone must have taken their cell phones too,” he thought.<\/p>\n
He turned to the front of the room. Everyone fidgeted in their chairs. A gigantic policeman in a bright blue uniform entered the room. A female officer followed him. “They must be eight feet tall,” Joey thought to himself.<\/p>\n
“You are the lucky ones,” the male officer said. His voice boomed through the room. “If good citizens didn’t stop you, you would be murderers by now,” the giant policeman said. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Maybe I sent a text or two,” he said. “You! Joseph,” the female policeman said. “You were going 85 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour zone. You had your eyes glued to your phone sending a text about nothing. You never saw the family. A pregnant women with three small children was about to cross the road in front of your speeding \u00a0vehicle. You do not know how lucky you are to have a second chance,” the giant female policewoman said.<\/p>\n
The slide show started and every person at every desk had their eyes glued to the screen. Over and over the slides repeated:<\/p>\n
“Be patient.”<\/p>\n
“Drive slowly under the speed limit.”<\/p>\n
“Do not text and drive.”<\/p>\n
The slides repeated over and over. \u00a0Joey’s eyes glazed over. “When is it going to stop? This is torture,” Joey said.<\/p>\n
“It will stop when you learn to respect your fellow human beings Joseph,” the giant policewoman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Here comes another one,” he said. “They heard the engine roar as the driver revved the engine. As the vehicle reached the mid-point of the quiet leafy street the engine noise climbed to a scream. “It sounds like one of the jet engines at JFK airport,” she said. “Are you ready?” he said. “Yes, all … Continue reading A lesson taught<\/span>