I recently heard that people who text while driving are 25 times more likely to have a serious accident.

Traveling about in an electric wheelchair on a fairly well-populated street, I have to stay pretty alert. People wandering about with a cell phone grafted to the side of their head and engrossed in conversation are a bloody hazard. But far worse are people striding along the sidewalk while texting—eyes on a little bitty screen with their thumbs a blur and oblivious to what's around them. In the space of about a block, I generally have to yell out a couple of times to keep someone from winding up in my lap! And sometimes even then. . . .

The lamp posts on Seattle's Broadway Avenue East near where I live are metal. More than once I've seen someone, distracted by their concentration on compulsive communication, walk right into one of them. A forehead meeting one of those metal poles makes a very satisfying "BONG-G-G-G-G!!!"

I'm given to smile a bit when that happens.

Don Firth

P. S. I have a cell phone which I keep mainly for emergencies, such as if I'm out in my electric wheelchair and the batteries poop out unexpectedly or if I'm near a grocery store and I call Barbara to ask if we need anything. The cell phone company is frequently on my neck because they feel I'm not spending enough money with them. TS!

The nearest I come to texting is using e-mail. On my computer.