April 11, 1990

Only women should be allowed to drive.  Men’s biological urge for speed, their quest to overcome all obstacles on the road, and their passionate self-absorption once in front of the wheel has littered the road with blood, heartache and years of pain, which only a faith in God can heal.

“Write about something wonderful or terrible,” I suggested to my students. I received paper after paper describing bloody car accidents.  Never had I known so many young people to have witnessed such carnage.

The first time I seriously sat in the driver’s seat, the instructor described all the things that could go wrong. I was 23:  Old enough to understand that when my body hits something going 20 miles per hour or faster, blood comes out of it and can result in death. I didn’t get my driver’s license that year.

At 27, a close friend died while driving a car.  Since my friend had done it, it wouldn’t happen to me.  I got my license, my first car and my first full-time teaching job at the age of 29.

My cars have been smashed three times by men: one drunk and drugged, a chauffeur staring at his female passenger in the rear-view mirror, and a Midwesterner eyeing the scenery and not the red light on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

What have I hit?  My Ford Fairmont hit a pole inconveniently placed by the dry cleaners’ entrance. My parallel parking skills deserted me and my Ford’s wheel rim hooked someone’s tire.  And once I misjudged the distance of the garage wall and scrapped the front left side of my beat-up Toyota.

Did I hit anything moving?  Did I risk passing a truck only to confront a car?  Did I smash a camel because I was speeding? Did I race a friend heedless of others?

Women are life-givers. Women give birth to children and endlessly nurture them as well as the grown men in their lives. Women pay attention to people and their emotions.  Men? Men love machines.  In a car, they are part of a dazzling machine and the other cars are competitors in style, speed and daring.

Which driver is going to be more considerate, safety-conscious and careful?  Men or women?  See! I told you so!  Only women should be allowed to drive!