‘Click It’ thoughts
While driving recently on the highway, I could not help to see the graphic police warnings to “Click It” and a threat of a $102 fee, if ignored.
Two thoughts came to me: What did “Click It” mean, and why was $2 added to the $100 fee?
It quickly occurred to me “Click It” meant my seat belt (it could have been anything that “clicked,” however). The $2 additional fee was a different matter.
It was probably a psychological add-on, the reverse of all those $10.99 items in stores, instead of $11, to think you saved money.
I asked myself, why are the police, and thus the county and state, threatening drivers with this fine? Not wearing a seat belt doesn’t make you a worse driver. It’s lack of attention, in many cases.
So, here are some solutions to the “Click It” obsession.
1. End seat belt laws. I hate to think police are spending hours staring into cars going 60 mph to see if the driver and passengers are wearing their belts.
2. Don’t bother. Most drivers wear their seat belts. They have to. The car does the job, screaming at you with bells and whistles after a few seconds, if you do not “Click It.”
3. Pay up. One simple solution. Have insurance companies refuse to pay your medical bills if you were not wearing your seat belt in an accident. Suddenly, that $102 ticket looks really good.
4. Most drivers follow common sense rules. Let’s keep the threats off the road.
David Lewis
Kurtistown
Seeing is believing?
Do you believe everything you see in a picture or video on TV in this fast-moving world where more people were sitting at home watching TV during COVID?
There is so much out there to take in, and we can be fooled by what we see, especially when we believe what we see and hear, intentionally or otherwise.
Join me to look closely beyond our stereotypical views of the world we normally “see,” because what we do not see is often immediately before our eyes.
Pictures or videos, for example, can be easily manipulated and are but an angle of the scene, rendered on a flat, two-dimensional plane of our three-dimensional world. This limits what we see because they lack depth.
Despite the limits of these recordings, whether from devices like our iPhones, police body cams or TV channels, we seem to easily forget that they represent only a part of what is really there. Unfortunately, we do believe what we “see” even if it’s an illusion.
In essence, these visual perceptions or illusions are not necessarily accurate. Otherwise, professional illusionists would not have an act to play. We’ve somehow lost our way and forgotten that the most real things in this world are often things we can’t see.
It feels as if reality or truth is fleeting in this world, and our minds are often suspended in a state dictated by pictures and videos on TV channels, especially those repeated commercials! We need to stop, consider the source, and discover the truth for ourselves unless entertainment is our only objection.
I enjoyed videography in college but chose to avoid a career as a TV producer because I did not want to inadvertently mislead my audience. To those new graduates among us, I urge you to make your dreams a reality but know that the illusions we carry need not be taken too seriously.
Mary M. Uyeda
Hilo
