THINK!...BEFORE YOU SPEED!

…Read This Slowly…

THINK!…BEFORE YOU SPEED!

                Jack took a long look at his speedometer before slowing  down: 73 in a 55 zone. Fourth time in as many months. How could a guy get  caught so often?
                When his car had slowed to 10 miles an hour, Jack pulled  over, but only partially. Let the cop worry about the potential traffic  hazard. Maybe some other car will tweak his backside with a mirror. The cop  was stepping out of his car, the big pad in hand.
                Bob? Bob from Church? Jack sunk farther into his trench  coat. This was worse than the coming ticket. A cop catching a guy from his own  church. A guy who happened to be a little eager to get home after a long day  at the office. A guy he was about to play golf with tomorrow.
                Jumping out of the car, he approached a man he saw every  Sunday, a man he'd never seen in uniform.
                "Hi, Bob. Fancy meeting you like this."
                "Hello, Jack." No smile.
                "Guess you caught me red-handed in a rush to see my wife  and kids."
                "Yeah, I guess." Bob seemed uncertain. Good.
                "I've seen some long days at the office lately. I'm afraid  I bent the rules a bit -just this once."
                Jack toed at a pebble on the pavement. "Diane said  something about roast beef and potatoes tonight. Know what I mean?" "I know  what you mean. I also know that you have a reputation in our precinct ." Ouch.  This was not going in the right direction. Time to change tactics.
                "What'd you clock me at?
                "Seventy. Would you sit back in your car please?"
                "Now wait a minute here, Bob. I checked as soon as saw  you. I was barely nudging 65." The lie seemed to come easier with every ticket.
                "Please, Jack, in the car."
                Flustered, Jack hunched himself through the still-open  door. Slamming it shut, he stared at the dashboard. He was in no rush to open  the window.
                The minutes ticked by. Bob scribbled away on the pad.
                Why hadn't he asked for a driver's license?
                Whatever the reason, it would be a month of Sundays before  Jack ever sat near this cop again. A tap on the door jerked his head to the  left. There was Bob, a folded paper in hand Jack rolled down the window a mere  two inches, just enough room for Bob to pass him the slip.
                "Thanks." Jack could not quite keep the sneer out of his  voice.
                Bob returned to his police car without a word. Jack  watched his retreat in the mirror. Jack unfolded the sheet of paper. How much  was this one going to cost?
                Wait a minute. What was this? Some kind of joke?
                Certainly not a ticket. Jack began to read:
                "Dear Jack, Once upon a time I had a daughter. She was six  when killed by a car. You guessed it- a speeding driver. A fine and three  months in jail, and the man was free. Free to hug his daughters, all three of  them. I only had one, and I'm going to have to wait until Heaven before I can  ever hug her again.
                A thousand times I've tried to forgive that man. A  thousand times I thought I had. Maybe I did, but I need to do it again. Even  now. Pray for me. And be careful, Jack, my son is all I have left."
                "Bob"
                Jack turned around in time to see Bob's car pull away and  head down the road. Jack watched until it disappeared. A full 15 minutes  later, he too, pulled away and drove slowly home, praying for forgiveness and  hugging a surprised wife and kids when he arrived.
 
 

                Life is precious. Handle with care. This is an important  message; please pass it along to your friends. Drive safely and carefully.  Remember, cars are not the only things recalled by their maker.
                Funny how you can send a thousand jokes through e-mail and  they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the  sanctity of life, people think twice about sharing.
                Funny how when you go to forward this message, you will  not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they  believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.
                Pass this on, you may save a life. Maybe not, but we'll  never know if we don't try.
                May today there be peace within you. May you trust God  that you are exactly where you are meant to be. "I believe that friends are  quiet angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering  how to fly."

gosh honeybabe that is such a very sad and sobering story. Life is very precious and thank you for passing this on me and many others. GBU

mm said:
gosh honeybabe that is such a very sad and sobering story. Life is very precious and thank you for passing this on me and many others. GBU

i, too, read the whole thing, for i never want to dismiss anything lightly. i, however, performed this through clenched teeth (my achin' TMJ!). for my part, this tripe, although "General" in the farthest reaches of the definition, it does not belong in this forum. i think that it is saccharine proselytizing at best and blatant spam at worst. private email, to those who wish to recieve it, is a far more appropriate medium for such twaddle, in my opinion. GB

What you just said kind of reminds of an old saying. "It's like the pot calling the kettle black." As you may think such postings as honeybabe's are tripe, some of us have the same opinions of negative comments regarding other posts. I don't recall anyone telling you you had to read the whole thing. I am merely stating my opinion, and it is not intended to insult or offend anyone. Feel free to respond as you feel.

I have had this emailed to me previously.
I think it is a great story.
I am happy Honeybabe posted it.
There is alot of other stuff people post which has nothing to do with the site. To name this as a bad post is not fair to any of the other posts that have nothing to do with the site. It isn't in the form of a form of a chain letter, just a nice story.

Just consider it a modern fable!

AN ASS, belonging to an herb-seller who gave him too little food and too much work made a petition to Jupiter to be released from his present service and provided with another master. Jupiter, after warning him that he would repent his request, caused him to be sold to a tile-maker. Shortly afterwards, finding that he had heavier loads to carry and harder work in the brick-field, he petitioned for another change of master. Jupiter, telling him that it would be the last time that he could grant his request, ordained that he be sold to a tanner. The Ass found that he had fallen into worse hands, and noting his master's occupation, said, groaning: "It would have been better for me to have been either starved by the one, or to have been overworked by the other of my former masters, than to have been bought by my present owner, who will even after I am dead tan my hide, and make me useful to him."

He that finds discontentment in one place is not likely to find happiness in another

Well all I can say is once back in the 70's we were driving down a side street behind the northgate and a little boy appeared between two parked cars in front of us, thank goodness our brakes were good and we weren't speeding!! It was a matter of inches when we stopped, I will never forget the look on his face and the feeling in my stomach and I do not speed because of this!!!

pooga interceded:
He that finds discontentment in one place is not likely to find happiness in another

and he that does naught but petition deities to improve his lot doth deserve what he gets. and if you cannot see the benefits of obeying traffic laws without a maudlin allegory then there would seem to be little point in the didactic. it seems infantile in a way and if i might cite a source even honeybabe would not contradict i'll close with:

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." ‑ 1 Corinthians 13:11

i_m objected:
What you just said kind of reminds of an old saying. "It's like the pot calling the kettle black."

i am vaguely offended by the use of this expression because it connotes that there is something vile, unsavory or even negative about being "black". i won't even BEGIN to talk about what the Cookware & Receptacle Anti-defamation Partnership (CRAP) has to say about such expressions! words should really be chosen more carefully – not to mention your negative response to my "negative" response, mr. pot…er…i mean, mr. monkey. :)

Rudy said:
if you cannot see the benefits of obeying traffic laws without a maudlin allegory

Sometimes it takes a story like honeybabe's to make some people realize why traffic laws are in place.

In school zones ( in Regina speed limit is 40 KM ) I try to slow down to 30 km/ hr for the elementary schools.
I know in Calgary it is 30KM & it is strictly enforced.
Children are our country's future!!

Children are our country's future!!

We've got to watch our backs…children are out to TAKE OVER!!!

LOL

Careful Sarge!
Your children decide your old folks home.