Chapter 4: Rhetorical Activity #3 (part 2 of 3)

I got a ticket for running a red light. I had my picture taken by a camera and was mailed a ticket. I was at work and showed the ticket to someone I worked with, and a few others were there and discussed the issue. I brought up the notion that maybe I could argue it in court, saying that the pain caused by my tooth cause me to have delayed reaction. One person in the group, whose name I do not know, said that if my tooth pain was causing delayed reaction then I shouldn’t have been driving. I asked, “then how am I suppose to get to the dentist.” The person said, “have someone else drive you.”

Issues involved driving with impaired ability to respond, the lack of time to respond in the first place given that the light stayed yellow for such a short period, the weather conditions could have made the situation worse if I had attempted to stop, the fact that they don’t teach you how long lights stay yellow on different mph roads, the fact that I was going five mph over the speed limit in poor conditions (along with the notion that even under good conditions and going the speed limit, if you hit the light turning yellow at just the right time, it is a difficult determination to make), the fact that only one angle of the camera was presented (the view of my going, but not the view of my approaching), and that other factors were not (could not) capable of being taken into consideration (i.e., what certain things on the ticket meant and the lack in the amount of time present to make such determinations, as well as other factors relevant to what an officer can determine about a situation that a camera cannot).

I believe the person I had the rhetorical discussion with, involving driving with slightly delayed reaction and driving somewhere to prevent this delayed reaction, took more of a conservative commonplace. Beliefs of this person suggested that having someone else drive me was a easy thing to come by. Openness to persuasion of this person didn’t appear to be possible, but perhaps for reasons more relevant to my stance than theirs.