The Star-News offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
I have watched adults exhibit questionable behavior.
I have seen young men jumping from extraordinary heights into a roiling ocean despite warnings from lifeguards and officials pointing out the inherent danger.
I have seen drivers attempt to traverse the San Diego river during a storm, believing they can make it across despite years—decades—of previous drivers attempting the same thing, only to be stranded in the middle of a car-eating current.
I have witnessed with alarm, fear and anger motorists who careen across two lanes of busy freeway traffic so that they can just barely catch their off ramp exit.
Thanks to social media I have gawked at grown-ups who have been visibly inebriated trying to back flip down narrow hallways, entitled patrons rant at coffeehouse cashiers for imaginary infractions and racists frothing at the mouth because someone else looks different.
In each instance I question their decision-making skills. What are they thinking, I wonder. Sheepishly, I admit that I occasionally ponder if I want the man who lights his friend’s hair on fire for giggles to have a say in my life. Do I want him or her to have a say in what laws and leaders govern me? Do I want them to vote?
No. Not always. The thought of a racist having a say in shaping laws that target a specific community makes me anxious.
But do I want anyone’s right to choose his representatives or have a say in the community she lives in stripped away because I don’t agree with or understand their behavior? No. Of course not.
We are unified in our humanity, if not our behavior. We each have a right to say how we want to spend our short time on earth. The challenge is in finding a compromise that we all can live with, even if it is not preferred outcome.
The Nov. 3 election is a few weeks away. It is an opportunity for everybody, from the fire starter to the river crosser to choose the direction they would like to see their lives go.
There may be instances in which groups or individuals try to prevent people from voting, either through intimidation or obfuscation. Don’t let them. We all have a right to say how we want to live. Even the guy who just makes his freeway exit.
