Sometimes, whenever I get off from work early, I sit on the porch to watch them play and I watch as those crazy cars go flying by. About two years ago, we complained so much that the town hall added a speed limit sign at the end of our block, I guess they were hoping that people would slow the heck down. It helped for the first few weeks as people lurked to make sure the police were not around as well. Now, even the traffic sign won’t help.

One night, some of the kids were playing soccer out in our front lawn. The ball accidentally got kicked a tiny bit too hard and bounced in the road, same time, first time driver, going 40 on a 20mph street, drove by. I was horrified. Did you not see the sign? Oh, my blood pressure was through the roof.

Some of the moms and I yelled and waved our arms so she could see that she was going a bit too fast, we got the middle finger instead. I was furious. Although no one ran to grab that ball, I couldn’t help but think that instead of a nice calm night, I could have been in the hospital helping my kid fight for his life.

Selfish. That is one way to put it, but another reason for this frustration is that no one was teaching these people, these teens, these drivers, the importance of following traffic signs. What is the next step? How do we not only protect our children but teach everyone to obey the traffic signs?

Raise your voice- no, not yelling, but take these issues to the town hall, make sure that they follow through with it. These issues exist everywhere, not just on my street, but it is how we come together as a community to make it better, for our kids, ourselves, and our town.

Take action!