Grow up and slow down

If folks would police themselves, they wouldn't have to be policed. Instead, they won't do right unless someone is waving a badge -- or a stick -- at them. Maybe it's human nature. Most likely, it's immaturity. Whatever it is, I'm finding it to be true in my new living surroundings, as people refuse to drive through this subdivision with any measure of responsibility.

There was a time I refused to consider living in the neighborhood where I bought a home two months ago. One reason was this very issue. I was 10-years acquainted with the area, dating back to when I would visit during the summers while I was still a New Yorker. Recently, when this house went on the market, I decided to check it out, really liked it and considered it -- but not before calling the subdivision president to ask a few questions. One of those questions had to do with the way people drive here; this is an area with a narrow circled road, no lines on this road, no guardrails, no speed bumps and multiple blind curves. I learned a few things in that conversation, including the fact that much has already been attempted, conversations already had, emails already sent -- and nothing has changed because people refuse to police themselves.

I've never been a complaining neighbor. I mind my business. I smile. I care about people. I'm determined, as I say, never to be that neighbor. (We have all had that neighbor before!) But this issue is important enough to speak up and get involved.

Clearly, many kind and responsible people live in this subdivision, which makes it an even greater shame that a potential homebuyer almost didn't buy because other careless, dangerous people nearly ruined it.

I ultimately decided to purchase, and, as suspected, the problem hasn't corrected itself. Folks are still folks -- and folks are still in need of policing. I think I've come to understand how "parent" went from just being a noun to also being a verb. Some adults just need to be parented because left to themselves, they're children. Without supervision, consequences and repercussions, they would self-destruct. Regarding driving like maniacs, however, there's more than their own safety involved. It's one thing if a person doesn't mind destroying himself; it's another thing altogether if he puts the rest of us in jeopardy. I hear concerned people here say, "No one's going to slow down until someone gets killed" or "It won't change until someone knocks someone else over the side and down into the lake, where they drown." So I'm not the only one concerned, which became clear when I posted about this on our subdivision's social media page and heard from people who are just as concerned and fed up.

The residents who care know our hands are tied, though. As this is private property, police do not have jurisdiction to enforce the speed limit. But that's my point: no one should have to threaten people with tickets or arrests to make them do right. You're grown? Act grown. Sometimes, I'm nearly blown off the road by these not-so-grownups, who probably have nowhere important to go anyway, and even if they do, they need to go responsibly. I haven't even pulled the Harley out of the garage for a ride yet; imagine how tricky that could get. Look, people have children riding in the car and playing in the neighborhood, spouses who love them, pets crossing the road. The other day, someone whizzed around the curve so fast, I thought, "Man! If a kid had just stepped out slightly into the road to retrieve a ball, she wouldn't have had time to react."

When I see these immature people driving without thought for anyone else, I wave my arms wildly and honk, yet I'm often ignored. And the other day, one person had the nerve to ride my tail as we entered the subdivision because, apparently, I wasn't driving fast enough. This, by the way, only made me drive slower.

So what now? A graduate school professor once wrote on my paper, "Responsibility is the ability to respond." I pray this message goes far and wide and that people will respond appropriately.

Listen, offenders: We know you don't realize your actions are a danger (or you don't care), you think you're invincible, you believe what you do only affects you and you feel the rest of us are overreacting. Others have had that same mindset, until the fateful day their theory fell apart -- but then, it was too late.

Yes, too late because -- as I used to tell my 7th-grade students -- there are some things "sorry" just can't fix.

Adrienne Ross is owner of Adrienne Ross Communications and a former Southeast Missourian editorial board member.