Curbing teen auto fatalities will require some creative thinking

To the editor:

I just arrived home from the forum at Monticello High School regarding teenage driving fatalities. There’s a lot of information, statistics, neat little electronic microchips and a video.

This is great, bringing together the community for a discussion about an important topic. But now it’s time to make some radical changes in the law. It’s time to switch gears from talk to action.

Here are some of my suggestions:

1. Drivers Education should become mandatory for graduation.

2. Instead of one semester, every other day, it should become a two-year course.

3. The curriculum should be changed to meet the needs of driving situations, skills, and changes in driver behavior.

4. Teens should be able to get their permits at 16 years old, but limited to being in the car with only their parents or a driving instructor.

5. Teens should be permitted to take the road test at 18 years old. If they pass the road test, they should not be able to drive by themselves until their 19th birthday, at which point they would receive full driving rights.

6. Those who fail the road test would need to wait six months before scheduling another test. Hopefully, during that time they will spend more time practicing their driving skills.

7. Instead of a requirement of 20 hours of supervised driving, the requirement should be increased to 100 hours.

8. Eliminate the five-hour course for anyone under the age of 18. Teens should be required to be in an approved Drivers Education class.

With New York State pushing for mandated courses and mandated testing in a variety of subjects in almost all the grades, isn’t it time to reevaluate the importance of teaching our students driving as a lifetime skill? Is 20 weeks every other day adequate for a course that you will use the rest of your life? Would you want pilots to be trained and tested after only 20 weeks of instruction, every other day?

There are more solutions to the problem. The status quo is not working, so let’s change our driving lives for the better. I’m willing to work with any state official to accomplish the abovementioned recommendations. Isn’t it time to think outside the box? Maybe this will stimulate some positive thoughts and some new and creative ideas to rectify this problem.

Adults can start today by providing models for good driving habits. Slow down and wear your safety belts in the front as well as the back seat, that would be a good start. Enough said, it’s time for action.

Keep Christ in Christmas

To the editor:

The United States is traditionally Judeo-Christian in culture, not Islamic, Buddhist or New Age Wicca.

Christmas is traditionally a national holiday, with baby Jesus as the center. The recent culture war and “The War on Christmas” (see book by John Gibson) goes beyond just saying “happy holidays”: it is about removal of the God of the Holy Bible from the United States.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of university professors are of the liberal persuasion, and teach only a secular worldview that leaves out our country’s Judeo-Christian heritage. Interestingly enough, this secular worldview was much less accepted when I (J.P.) was a child and virtually non-existent when Julius was a boy 96 years ago. I (J.P.) was born in Florida but grew up in Queens, NY. I remember learning many of the original Christmas carols, with all the lyrics that glorified God, intact, in public school, sitting along side all my friends of various cultures and religions in that great melting pot NYC. This was in the 1970s. Those of you who are of our generations learned those songs too.

We were upset when we heard that New York City banned the nativity scene from public school; oh how culturally diverse they are to include all but the baby Jesus.

J.P (John) Pasquale

Bridge supporters in good company

To the editor:

With reference to the article in the December 7-13 issue of The River Reporter, “Penn DOT to ‘fix’ the Pond Eddy Bridge,” it is worth mentioning that in addition to being included on the Pennsylvania and New York State Historic Registers, the bridge is also listed on the National Register.

The opposition of a group of residents of New York to a new bridge adds to the strong opposition—on the record—from Preservation Pennsylvania, the Preservation League of New York State, and the New York State Historic Preservation Office, not to mention the Friends of the Pond Eddy Bridge, whose members are equally distributed in New York and Pennsylvania.