At the risk of stating the obvious, a new Minnesota law goes into effect today. What? You ask. Goldfish leash ordinances? Shoe taxes to pay for running paths? No. (Not this year.) The new law bans texting while driving. I approve.
Unenforceable as the law may be, it Sends the Right Message. If we don't ban texting now, humans will evolve into some horrible creature with an arm that comes right out of the sternum, and handles the wheel while the driver types out gossip.
Frankly, I love texting. It's as close as we'll get to beaming thoughts directly into people's brains. I'm a large fan of Twitter, which is texting on a wide scale - intimate, voyeuristic, addictive, and --
Hold on, I have to twitter this.
Am writing a column about texting right now
Hit send ... there. Sorry. Where were we? Never mind. Anyway, some people say texting and twittering is another factor in our fractured attention span LOOK, A DOG! Over there. Cute!
Anyway, some people say texting is another sign we can't keep our minds on the task at hand, which is often defined as "not getting run over by a bus." Thursday's paper had a story on the latest Modern Worry, Inattentive Texting. People are crossing busy streets, thumbing inanities on their screen, and bang: jam on a taxi grill.
We shouldn't make light of it. There have been deaths. Two. In both cases the victims were struck by cars while crossing the street typing on a cell phone screen. Famous last words, as the cliché has it.