police officers were vehicles confiscated from drug dealers. These cars were often “hot rod” vehicles that attracted the student’s attention and were awe inspiring to some youths.
At one open house, I noticed and read essays that were written by students and posted in the classroom and the corridor of the school. The topic of the essay paraphrasing was “If one wish or want could be fulfilled, what would you ask for”. Most of the content of student’s essays consisted of the desiring of material goods or personal attributes related to an aptness in sports. Few essays contained desires for the resolutions of national and world problems.
In 1989, localities in the State of New York began enacting a series of laws regarding the mandatory wearing of bicycle helmets. The laws first applied to children under the age of five years of age, and then in later years, expanded to include all ages in some counties. To some people, this law is considerably oppressive and could be dangerous for one’s health as most body heat escapes from the head. The wearing of a helmet could cause some people to overheat, causing heat related stress to the body to include for examples, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Individuals should be relied on to make common sense decisions regarding the wearing of a bicycle helmet. For example, when first learning to ride a bicycle perhaps a helmet should be worn, or if one rides a “racing bicycle” ( a bicycle with thin tires) that can skid easily, then perhaps a helmet should also be worn.
In the autumn while outside raking leaves in our yard, a bus on a scheduled route was driving past our home. Suddenly, I heard the brakes of the large bus come to a screeching halt to probably avoid hitting a car that I had seen at about the same time which was turning around and exiting from a neighbor’s driveway. The driver of the bus exited that vehicle and asked to use our telephone because a man who was standing on the bus had fallen to the floor and was injured. The paramedics were called and arrived at the scene and the man was taken away to a hospital by ambulance. At about this time, I observed a car and a driver driving by this accident scene, that appeared to be the same car seen turning around earlier in the neighbor’s driveway. I noted the license plate number and provided this to a police officer called to the scene. By about the following week, I was asked to give two testimonies concerning the observation of this accident, one to a bus company representative and one to an insurance representative. Later in 1998, an attorney contacted me at me at my home in Florida and wanted me to testify in court. I stated that the officials involved in this case had my written testimony given in 1994 and I asked why there was a need for me to appear in court. The attorney stated that the passenger who was standing on the bus and had fallen to the floor was suing the bus company, the person pulling out of the neighbor’s driveway was involved, and there were other problems surrounding this case. The attorney offered to pay my airfare to New York to testify in court. I declined this offer and stated that our family would soon be moving back to our residence in New York. I also stated that the testimony that I had given in 1994 was accurate and I questioned my ability, four years later to recall the specifics of this witnessed accident. Shortly after arriving home in New York in early 1999, an attorney contacted me to meet at an office located in the town of my residence in New York . After agreeing to meet with this attorney I was astonished to realize that the meeting was attended by several attorneys about the specifics of my 1994 testimony. It appeared to me as though through much probing of these several