Wake Up Call.

• Author: Moll, Arther I.
• Position: VIEWS FROM THE BOTTOM

Wake Up Call

As I somewhat slavishly read my newspapers, listen to the radio and TV news reports and pay attention to the savants and other pretenders who dominate the talk shows, the question "when are we going to wake up?" always come to mind.

It is based on a personal observation, perhaps shared by untold numbers of others, that all facets of our society are so imbued with the demand for instant gratification that we disregard all the consequences so that we can achieve that immediate result. Yet the concept is mythical, for the most part.

This process means that we make the same mistakes, time after lime. We have not learned patience. Wc have not learned that there are few shortcuts to everything. We have not learned to be tough and not learned to be honest enough to effect change.

Change never comes easy. It often means admitting that you were wrong and this is a very difficult admission for some if not most of us.

We can no longer ignore the distortions perpetrated by the "crooked" brokers who abuse the assigned risk system.

On a positive note, there has been an increase in company investigations and some loopholes are being closed. The nooses are getting tighter and tighter. The falsification of applications is slowly becoming a thing of the past and we hope will soon be a closed chapter. I am not so naive to think that those who have larceny in their hearts may not come up with some other artifices, but it will not be so easy for them.

To keep the pressure up, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the insurers must carefully investigate every accident involving an unlicensed driver to ascertain how insurance was obtained if insurance is involved. If the review discovers that an insurance broker issuing an ID card falsified the entries, his/her license should not only be subject to revocation, but, further, if a serious accident or vehicular homicide was involved, the broker should be subject to criminal penalties. Due to the nature of the insurance business, I spend a good percentage of my day driving the highways in the metropolitan New York area. We hear so much about the deteriorating infrastructure all over the country, and I'm sure that's an accurate picture, but Greater New York appears to be in an unending condition of street repair. A quotation made decades ago and attributed to Bob Hope is that "New York is a wonderful city. I hope to come back some day when they finish it."

There are so many projects going on. involving so...