Breaking the Law, Breaking the Law.

It happened again this morning. I was walking my dog and noticed the same guy and his dog across the street, about 1/2 block ahead of me. He was holding the leash, but the dog wasn’t on the other end. His dog was walking in the boulevard, off its leash.

I came across these two last week. The guy and his dog crossed the street and turned towards us. As they approached, my dog got a bit excited as the other dog was ‘free’. My first thought was that his dog could run into the street or chase down a child. But it appeared well-trained. I told the guy that in our city, dogs must be on leashes at all times. He mumbled something and clipped the leash onto his dog. I was sure he unhooked it as soon as he was far enough away from us. That bothered me the rest of the morning.

This morning I didn’t say anything. But it still bothered me.

I’ve always been more of a rule-follower. Not every rule, but most of them. And apparently more than most people.

It’s not just leashes, though.

A stop sign sits at the end of our block. Few cars stop at it unless they think they can’t beat oncoming traffic. Otherwise, they just drive as if it’s not there. I finally contacted our police department, and they promised to ‘increase patrols in the area’ -which did happen - but it hasn’t changed the behavior of drivers. No cop, no stop.

Don’t even get me going about leaving trash barrels knocked over on the curb for days after pickup!

Know what else? Speeding, especially on the highway. I typically drive ‘speed of traffic,’ but there’s always more than a few people driving easily 20-30 mph over the speed limit. I hope they get that organ to the transplant operation in time.

After some retrospective thinking on my patio, which is as scientific as I get on this subject, I wonder if what we’re talking about is moral justification. Kinda like it’s ok to drive at the ‘speed of traffic’ but not TOO fast over the speed limit. I know people who rarely eat red meat, and when they do, it has to be cooked beyond well done. They consider it unhealthy. Yet they will eat processed cereal for breakfast and consume a lot of alcohol. Then there’s me again. Close to 90% of the clothing I wear is 100% American-made. Not just sewn here, but the cotton, the zippers, the buttons - everything- is produced in the United States using local raw materials. I’ll gladly tell anyone who asks why I think it’s important to pay a bit more for a T-shirt made here than one in a foreign country. Oh, and the two cars in my garage? Built in Japan.

The funny thing is, none of those people’s actions had a direct effect on my life. Except when I allowed it to.

In what areas of your life do you play the moral justification card?