| Back to school means be alert | |||||||
| by BUDDY AMATO | |||||||
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Our children will all be going back to school this month and that means our streets especially the cross walk areas, when they use them and corner's where the buses stop will be teaming with kids. Many parents will be going back to work and for the most part the morning hours means a lot of us going to work. All of this combined means every one is going to be in a hurry. We all must however sit back and try to relax before sitting behind the wheel of our car and try to compose ourselves and realize the obstacles that will be set in front of us, most of them alive. It makes no sense to run to our cars half awake, or in a fog, with a cup of coffee in our hands starting up the engine and making mistakes that may forever change the lives of our families for the rest of our lives. Before running out to your car, try to relax and be aware of the fact that depending what time of day you are leaving your house for work, that there are many children doing the same thing in the morning, going to school. As we all know, our children for the most part are in a twenty four hour a day daze and because of that, we must be that much more aware of the fact that they are on the streets and as we thought when we were at that age, they feel they are indestructible!. They, the children no matter how many times you tell them will dart out of areas on the street that will catch you totally off guard, and if you are not first alert, second awake, third going at a low rate of speed, fourth not driving with a hot cup of coffee in one hand and your electric razor or makeup kit in the other, and fifth, relaxed and composed to deal with split second decisions to deal with possible disasters, you will find yourselves in a situation that can only be described as a nightmare. I for one can not think of a worse scenario than hitting a child with my car, it is something that I just can't imagine, however accidents happen every day and if we as adults just sit back and follow some of the proper procedures as mentioned above, we can push the odds in our favor and avoid many common mistakes we all make sometimes when behind the wheel of our cars. When we are traveling down areas that we all know that there are children in, like our own neighborhoods, it is a good idea to crawl down the streets when approaching any child walking along it. I have seen as many of our children do things that make no sense, they will dart for no reason at all from one side to another when going to their bus stops, they will be playing games with one another, many of them will be wearing their walkmans on their heads so as not to hear you hit your horm when they drift close to the road area. Many children will crowd the street because they like to walk abreast of one another, you will rarely see a group of kids following each other in single file like a group of ducklings,following their mother. Kids are going to be kids and we must because of that live up to our title of being adults, just go slow, be ready for that sudden unforeseen child that just steps the wrong way. We must remrmber when we were kids, we also thought we were indestructible, we did the same things, we yell at our own children for. I remember, walking to shcool and playing silly games with my friends, we always figured the adults being adults would thing for us and we never thought for a minute that we could be hit by a car, because we as I said before were all indestructible. In the last few years however as many of you I have seen too many funerals and too many ruined lives over this way of thinking, our kids are any thing but indestructible and our lives can and will change in a second if we allow ourselves not to be total in control and alert when driving that two thousand pound car down the road within inches in many cases of our forty pound and sixty pound children, do the math. What is more important, getting to your job a minute or two early, or beating that traffic signal, or our children's safety? We all have been there so when you read this article, stop and think especially when you are on your cell phone, slapping on that last three inches of makeup on your mug, or trying to shave your face because you got up late and could not do it like a human being in your bathroom before you left the house. We all must sit back and take charge of our own actions when contemplating getting behind the wheel of our vehicles, period. Go to bed earlier, shave before you hit the sack, coat your face with Earl Schribe makeup before you have your coffee and before you pluck your eyebrows, call your girlfriend when you get to work, not on the car cell to make a lunch date, all these things are not what we would want if our child was the one walking down the street with these things going on!. Again, remember school is going to be started very soon and the morning hours will mean children at bus stops and children on their way to school, they don't have two thousand pounds of armor built around their bodies! Grandmaster Buddy Amato operates Amato's Karate and Weapons Academy, 589 Palmer Avenue, West Keansburg and is the author of Buddys Animal Kingdom. For more information, call (732) 671-9555.
Copyright Buddy Amato Amato's Goju-ryu Karate, Nunchaku, Bo-staff, Aikido, Sword, Kendo, Sais, Kick-boxing, Tai-Chi and more 589 Palmer Ave, Keansburg and is the author of Buddys Animal Kingdom, NJ 07734 (732) 671-9555 |
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