By T.J. Ray
Columnist
Sun reflecting on the chrome grill of a huge pickup truck zooming up behind me got my full
attention. Surely, I thought, he’s going to hit his brakes before he hits me. Instead of plowing
into my rear, he twitched his wheels and passed me, leaving me nervous that the accident had
come so close and impressed with his driving.
Saved from the close call, I watched the big truck pass me. What I actually saw was the lower
part of the truck, not even up to the window. Huge! At that disparate level, I was
able to briefly examine his wheels. The brilliant shine from the spokes was somewhat
disorienting but impressive. As he moved ahead, the width of his tires was revealed. Perhaps a
foot from edge to edge.
The price tag on one of those giants likely cost more than all the rubber on my poor little Honda.
Finally — actually nearly instantly — the truck went ahead of me, accelerating as it went.
Well, so much for that moment of observation. But it was not the grandeur of the chrome or the
bully impression of the tires that most impressed me. Anyone with a healthy bank account might
duplicate what I had just witnessed. And the state allowed the driver of such a beast to tower
well above the roofs of neighboring vehicles.
So what’s the problem?
I forgot to mention the huge pipes protruding from under the bed of the truck, one on each side.
Each was perhaps six inches in diameter. As the guy raced up the road, leaving several cars
almost at a standstill, those pipes announced his going, his supremacy on the asphalt.
An initial guttural rumble was quickly overshadowed by a roar that lasted until the truck was out
of sight. I looked across at the fellow in the next lane, watching him shrug at this public
roar—and outrage.
Fact: The driver likely had a license to be on the road. Fact: His driver’s license did not limit the
noise he might make with his monster mufflers. Fact: The highway patrolman sitting quietly with
his radar beaming did not pursue the roaring truck.
And there, dear friends, is the issue.
Nothing the truck driver did was illegal! Expensive, yes! But legal. What is missing from this
reporting is the 64,000 dollar question: What gives someone the right—the license— to disrupt
everyone’s quiet, to announce to one and all that his personal need to vaunt himself supersedes
the public right to peace and quiet?
The only thing I might add is the old adage that my right to swing my fist ends where your nose
begins.