People have lost the ethic of using their brakes. You've seen it. Even a tiny change in the traffic flow and we witness horns honking and near misses. What is wrong with people? "Now class, this is the brake. It's spelled, b-r-a-k-e. You put your foot on it. Yes, like that. It helps you slow. That's how you adjust to traffic. Say it after me, 'SLOW'. Okay, that's enough for today's lesson on remedial braking."

It's true. In the midst of this entitlement culture we find ourselves in, folks regard braking as a restriction of their rights. Seriously. "Look at this guy, he's actually slowing in a school zone. The jerk! I'm not going to let him make me late for my therapy session!" It's probably more noticeable to motorcyclists than to others, but even in my truck I experience it. However, on the bike it's that much scarier. I slow for a corner and look in my mirror and realize I am nearly getting run over! And I know my brake light works and my turn signal has been blinking for at least 200 feet! And turn signals! Don't get me started. Not one in a hundred motorists deploys his signals further from the corner than ten feet.

The late, world famous evangelist Billy Graham once said that it was possible to track the decline in personnal morality by observing drivers. Yup. The erosion of humility and civility is very evident. We should have bumper stickers that read, "I brake only to gawk at accidents, not to prevent them." Remedial braking indeed!