Dusk was setting in on my Wednesday late afternoon drive. It’s a path I take multiple times weekly, near to my home. I take backroads behind some local suburban businesses to pick up my son from work, roads with a speed limit of no more than 30 m.p.h.
The car in front of me was a ways away, following a similar path, and he turned left maybe 50 yards down the road. As soon as he turned, someone laid on their horn. Long. Loud. Very loud.
I wasn’t immediately sure what prompted the audible angst until after the turning car cleared. I realized then he had turned directly in front of an oncoming vehicle. The oncoming car looked like he had to slam on his breaks in order not to t-bone the turner. His car was a dark black or blue, tinted windows, and he didn’t have his lights on; dusk was just setting in. Regardless of his lights, from my vantage point — which was a close, clear, direct view — the turning car was completely in the wrong. Thank God the situation was not worse.
Let’s add some brief, relevant context…
Selective content refers to choosing only certain pieces of information, material or media while leaving other info out. The choosing may or may not be intentional; we may not even realize we are being selective.
Because our view is close… because our view is clear… there is no need to take the time to investigate or discern further. We react; we know what we know.
I quickly passed the car that had previously slammed on his brakes. Covering those 50 yards, I then came to the same turn. And fascinatingly, something became visible that was impossible for me to see from my original vantage point.
It was a few minutes before 6 pm. Sunset began less than ten minutes ago, with the sun to be completely down within 15 minutes. Remember I was behind all the businesses. There were also multiple trees lining the road. There were no light poles. Friends, it was unexpectedly, oddly, completely dark. I could see nothing coming from the other direction.
Soon, no less, a new car coming toward me entered the road. He had his lights on. I could see.
It dawned on me that the previous turning car never saw the oncoming car because the other car did not have his lights on. And yet the driver of the oncoming car never knew — and most likely will never know — that he contributed to the negative situation. Not only will he never know, he probably went home that night and said something along the lines of the following:
“You’ll never guess what happened to me today. I was driving down the street just past Starbucks, and all of a sudden this crazy driver turned right in front of me! They didn’t slow down at all! I had to slam on my brakes not to hit them! Geesh. Drivers these days.”
And both he and whoever he tells walks away thinking only one person contributed to the terrible situation. His content is selective. And he has no idea.
It was hard not to think of this interaction on Wednesday, the day we also learned of the horrific situation in Minneapolis… a woman obstructing an ICE operation, who was fatally shot by an agent. How absolutely awful.
I have no definitive answers here; again, it was awful. I wasn’t there. I’ve watched various videos which provide varied perspective. But respectfully disagreeing with the characterizations of many, I don’t believe the woman was a domestic terrorist nor the agent was an assassin. There is more to investigate and discern.
I don’t believe she should have been shot. I also believe she shouldn’t have interfered with law enforcement.
What a tragic, awful situation.
Soberly…
AR