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So I’m running the other night after work. I’m not killing myself because I’m still sore from a previous jaunt. As I run up a slope, I see a woman parked beside a fallen stop sign in the middle of the road. The sign has been rammed and its wooden post is jagged and broken. She’s moving the broken sign out of the road. I look at the front of her car. A dent in her bumper shouts: GUILTY!
I don’t stop. Don’t want to be rude. I wonder if she’s going to just leave it, though. There are very few cars nearby; no one to see. And then I wonder, What would I do, if she were me? Would I tell someone, if there were no one to see?
What would you do?
When I passed back by, the above picture is what I saw.
shift 
It’s a good question and difficult to answer. I’d like to say I would stand up and take responsibility because that is the right thing to do. Jeez, what a challenging question, because, you know, if nobody is there to see and you know “the government” will just take care of this particular thing, why take personal responsibility?
I thought the same thing, King. I mean, no one was hurt. No personal property (other than the woman’s car) was damaged. And who would I even call? 9-1-1? My title for this post was perhaps too harsh. I didn’t mean to criticize. The question just occurred to me and I had to ask.
Ask if she is OK, help remove the broken post.
I guess I should have done that, John, except that the woman appeared to be fine and in a hurry. In my post, though, I meant to ask, “What would I do if I were her?” Would I have done the same thing — moved the post out of the road and just left it? To be honest, I think I might have, but if I had, would that have been the right thing?
I hope she is okay. Ramming the post must have been scary. Maybe she was sober, maybe she was not. Who knows. I don’t fault you for minding your own business…for all you know she might have reacted aggressively. I would certainly tell someone what had happened there if I were her, though. No sign, no direction for other cars and someone might even stumble over it.
I guess my question was: Who would I even tell? And would I be held liable for replacing the sign? After all, I’d be the one who broke it. I don’t think she was drunk. I have no idea what happened. It was probably just the end of a tough day. I don’t mean to cast judgment. Just thinking out loud. :)
You know how we are always comparing our country to the other ones we have visited…Well, I just went to my favorite other country and had to say that there; the pole would have just sat there and then later something else would join it. No one would care…no one would report it. It would become yet another obstacle to drive around.
I am happy to be home and happier to see that someone cares enough to write about it.
Better than a society that does not care at all.
Oooh I hope you had a good trip! Yes, I agree that it’s good we live in a country where things like this are fixed and not left where they lay to litter the street. Thanks for that perspective, Steve!
I think you would have to be running pretty fast for You to demolish a sign like that running past it Jess. And it would hurt! Otherwise I would probably arrange the debris so it is out of the flow of traffic. I am not going to run it to the city dump.
I think I’m with you, Andy. There are far worse crimes than knocking over a stop and road sign, and the city can take care of replacing it. I just had to ask the question…
I think I would phone the authorities and reported there was an obstruction in the road without saying how it got there :)
That sounds like a good and sneaky plan to me! :D
😊
Ugh…moral questions…
Walk away…because I’m trash
But then would be tortured due to my childhood upbringing.
Then say three hail Mary’s and two our Fathers and go on my way…
You are NOT trash!! To be honest, I think I would have walked away, too. No one was hurt; I didn’t damage anyone else’s property, and certainly the government can replace those signs… I’m not sure that that would be the “right” thing to do, but I know it would be my inclination.
But it is Airport Blvd so it coulda been a low flying plane…
Lol, that would be a LOW plane and would probably have involved more than a sign!