Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Popper arrested/Rush to Judgment....

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

Larry C writes:
 
"If he was a rapper this incident would help his career.   

But I have lost respect for him over  this.  That speeding car could have 
killed someone's child, spouse,  friend etc.- sure, he wasn't driving but I don't 
doubt he could have made  his pal slow down if he wanted to"
 
and Marc Spilka adds:
 
"Puberty is supposed to cure this kind of thing.

Whether he  was driving or not, unless he was being kidnapped he had as much  
responsiblity for being in a car doing 111mph as the driver. Imagine how  
much coverage this story would have gotten if they had hit someone and  killed 
them."
 
Okay...I'm not speaking to the guns and other things, but wait a  minute.  
Tell me how a passenger in a car has ANY control over what  the driver does?  
How does anyone who wasn't there in that car with  them know whether John Popper 
was or was not sound asleep at the time the  DRIVER (who is the person in 
control of the car) was driving far in  excess of  the speed limit?  
 
Just because he's a celebrity doesn't make John Popper any more  responsible 
for what the driver was doing than it makes ME when my spouse  drives far too 
fast when I'm in the car with him.
 
Do you know how many times I'VE awakened in the car after dozing off  to find 
him flying down the highway at speeds way  beyond the speed limit...and 
despite my entreaties, continues to  drive the way HE considers his own business?  
So by your logic it  would be MY responsibility for not "making him" slow 
down? 
 
 Right.  And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell  you too. Any other 
women here ever tried to tell a man he's driving "too  fast"?  lol
 
Any MAN here ever tried to tell his buddy he's "driving too  fast"?  Or that 
he's had one too many and can't get behind the  wheel..or take away the keys 
from a belligerent drunk?  It all sounds  so easy to talk about, but just try 
practicing it in "real" life.
 
I have an extended family member who is a terrible driver...yet  taught 
Driver's Ed in school years ago.  In his head that means he's  a wonderful 
driver..so any mention (in the car) of things he might be  doing wrong, brings on 
tirades...ending with "MYOB".  I'd hate  to be held responsible for this Bozo's 
driving, so mostly avoid being in a  car with him if at all possible. 
 
Yes...clearly 111 mph is so beyond the speed limit as to be  ludicrous.  So 
could not something else have been at play  here?  Could it possibly be that 
everyone had dozed off including the  driver..and his foot then pressed down on 
the accelerator?  I  can't imagine anyone driving that fast deliberately.  
 
Point is...I don't know what happened. Neither do you.  None of  us do...so 
let's not all leap to judgment..just because he's a harmonica  player and 
somehow supposed to "represent" the community.  
 
Of course they got very lucky...that the driver didn't kill himself,  his 
passenger and anyone else on the road...but the passenger in a car is  NOT the 
guilty party when a driver breaks the law.  Period.
 
Elizabeth



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