What is Legal VS What is Right!
What’s Right and What’s Legal?
Situation: You are driving down the highway in a car that is registered to your spouse. You know that traffic enforcement lights are up ahead so you consciously slow down. As a big truck passes you in the right hand lane (obviously speeding and annoyed because you slowed down) just as the speeding camera takes a picture. Someone is busted! Looking down you see that you are going 69 in a 65mph zone. You come home and tell your spouse you can’t believe that the guy in the truck was busted like that.
Fast forward three weeks and your spouse gets a letter of the car, clear pictures of you driving, and stating you were going 78mph. The notice is not a fine for your wife since she was not driving the car but since it was registered in her name she has 4 weeks to “turn in” under sworn statement who was driving.
What do you do?
A. Since you just moved, feign ignorance, not respond and see if they send a second notice? After all, it could have gotten lost in the mail and if you prolonged it for 3 months then you may get out of the ticket if you move out of state.
B. Ask your spouse to fill in that they do not know who was driving the car and lie under oath? After all, the car was totaled a few weeks earlier and we do not even have it anymore. How would they follow up anyway, we have different last names. The worst that could happen is her driving license is suspended.
C. Fill out the paperwork for your spouse and turn yourself in. Even though it is a total racket. The people who are contracted by the Scottsdale Police to run the camera system also have high priced lawyers so no one who ever fights a ticket wins, they split the proceeds 50-50 with the city of Scottsdale, and they run the driving school that everyone who gets a ticket must attend so that there are not points added onto your record with the insurance company that would make your premium go up. In essence, you pay the same company for the ticket and the driving school and the City of Scottsdale says believes that contracting out their law enforcement duties to a non-law enforcement entity who is double dipping from the tickets and driving school is legal.
Well, the answer for me was C. It was one of the toughest decisions that I made this year. Many times in life, what is morally, ethically, and legally right are in conflict. How do we sort out the difference? In the end, it does not matter who is right what matters most is “What is right by you?” Doing what is right is the hardest thing to do and it is also the most rewarding. Systems are not perfect, people are not perfect, and the world is not perfect.
The only way to get through is to ask, “What is truly right for me based on my principles, morals, ethics, and values?” The hardest part about answering that question is that most of the time what is right will end up inconveniencing you in the short run. I may very well have to pay $135 for the ticket, plus driving school, plus the 8 hours to take the course, and perhaps miss coaching one of my sons’ basketball games because of it.
There are benefits to inconveniencing yourself in order to do what is right. My wife is not stressing about what is going to happen to her wallet. My son sees a father who steps up and takes responsibility for his actions and does what is right even though he was mad as a hornet at an unjust system, disappointed in the fact that he was speeding and caught, and will end up missing one of the most important, rewarding and fulfilling hours of the week coaching basketball.
In the end, they have my money, my time, and less respect for this piece of our legal system. I still come out the winner because I have peace of mind as a husband and father, a deeper level of respect for myself, and I am looking forward to learning something new in the driving school.
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