Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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"Fighting
injustice, one victory at a time."
Q & A with a Mini-Trucker
Customizer
The
debate over clear tail light lenses has become civilized and polite, since I
made clear my objections to rude and obscene e-mail from some of those who
object to my proposal to ban clear tail light lenses that do not contain red
reflectors. Today, questions and answers from an e-mailer named Joey who
requested clarification on where Rob Sherman Advocacy stands on the issue.
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Joey's text is in the same red font that he used to send it to me. My
reply is in the usual font.
My name is
Joey. I'm 21 years old and been into MiniTruckin for about 11 years now.
Does this mean that
you got your driver's license at the age of 10?
My
question for you is: Are you going to try and pass a law that bans the
customization of cars and trucks?
Just the opposite.
I love the look of customized cars and trucks. I like the
creativity that it shows. What I oppose is the elimination of necessary
safety equipment, such as the display of a red reflector that is visible at
all hours of the day from the rear of all vehicles, including customized ones.
The red reflector is not there to protect the driver of the customized
vehicle. It is there to protect the driver of the vehicle BEHIND him by
enabling that driver to see the vehicle ahead, particularly when weather
conditions create poor visibility, such as on very cloudy days, foggy days and
in winter when one's windshield may be clouded by steam or dirt spray.
Without the red reflector, such as in the tail light lens, the customized
vehicle may be standing still, while the vehicle behind crashes into the
improperly and illegally unmarked (no red reflector) customized vehicle.
The driver of the customized vehicle doesn't get hurt, because he was standing
still in his disguised vehicle, but the driver behind gets maimed or killed
due to the selfish, irresponsible conduct of the customizer. That's what
my campaign is all about. Protecting law-abiding citizens like me from
customizers who illegally endanger the public by obscuring their vehicles by
eliminating the necessary rear red reflectors that normally are present in the
tail light assembly.
I'm just
curious on your opinions on lowering and modifying the suspension and if you
think it's a big concern?
I don't care what
you do with the suspension, as long as you maintain proper, legal bumper
height. Maintaining proper bumper height is important so that, in a
collision, one vehicle doesn't submerge the other vehicle. Generally, when
suspensions are lowered, the customizer doesn't bother to raise the bumper
back up to the legal height, which I believe is 12 inches above the ground.
In fact, generally, the customizer could care less about how high his bumper
is. All he cares about is how cool he looks, regardless of how his
conduct increases danger to himself and those around him. It is because
customizers don't care about the safety of those around them that people like me seek to enact laws
mandating the preservation of safety standards. What I do is not about
opposing customization by mini-truckers or car customizers. Rather,
it is about preserving safety standards for the protection of everybody,
including the customizers, but especially for the rest of us who could end up
being victims of the reckless, careless, selfish, irresponsible conduct of
those customizers who would compromise my safety because they think that
looking as cool as possible is the only consideration, regardless of how much
their selfish conduct degrades the safety of those around them.
I was
reading alot of your stuff and some I do agree and disagree. How about
try a law that bans Hyperwhite lenses? Those are so annoying. Ever
have a problem driving home at night and see a bright blue light coming at
you? Really annoys the heck out of me.
There is a
difference between things that annoy the public and things that endanger the
public. My goal is to eliminate those things that needlessly endanger
the public. As far as things that annoy the public, if a law was ever
passed which banned that, I'd probably get life in prison because I
perpetually seek ways to improve our lives by changing the status quo, and
we know how annoying many in the public think that that is.
Well
thank you for listing to me and have a wonderful week!
You,
too.
-Joey
Rob Sherman
P. O. Box
7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
A post office box is used
because
the street address uses a curb mail box,
which is not secure.
Telephone: (847) 870-0700
Fax: (847) 870-1156
E-mail: rob followed by
the at symbol followed by robsherman dot com