Defensive Driving School
Thanks to this ticket, I was "ordered" by Judge Julie Cantrell (who wasn't the judge who saw my case, but anyway) to attend defensive driving class. Since my class was held at the Lake County Government Building and in a courtroom, I was sure that my class was going to be led by government workers. (To that end, I have a Bill of Rights "Void Where Prohibited By Law" t-shirt that I wore to the class.)
Actually, I was half right, one of the instructors was a clerk for Lake County. The other woman might have been, but if she was, she wasn't full of herself like many government employees seem to be. The clerk wasn't either, amazingly enough.
The class started with a video hosted by some dorky jackass named Perry King from around 1988. The celebrities in the video included Connie Sellecca, Al Unser, Jr., and William Shatner (he mentioned hosting Rescue 911), and some other clowns no one would know from a baboon's ass. It was as lame as you'd expect, and beside the handing over of $80 to the clerk outside the courtroom, the most painful part of the class.
After the flashback, the instructor brought out some overhead slides which would have been drop-dead boring except the slides were a type of icebreaker. After that, the class was mainly a discussion of the tickets we've had, our driving styles (with one guy admitting he tailgated people to get them out of his way), why you basically cannot get out of tickets once they've been issued, and so on. In addition, it was probably a multiculturalist's wet dream: people from different races, religions, and age groups coming together, in this case, to acknowledge the traffic court system is bullshit.
The class had its moments for sure. For example, after the mandatory "it could happen to you" story told by a twenty-three-year-old who drove drunk and survived a horrendous crash, a mother went on about her college age son that did little but drink and once was jailed for DWI. I understand her concern, sure, but it took her almost twenty minutes to understand that for her son (or for teenagers, who she also seemed to have a general concern about), that the story we heard might convince some people to stop drinking and driving, it might not work for others.
Overall, other than the loss of money I really could use right now, it wasn't a bad experience. I met some really good people (although I'll probably never see any of them again) and the class itself was almost fun. Don't think I want to go back, however. :-)
Actually, I was half right, one of the instructors was a clerk for Lake County. The other woman might have been, but if she was, she wasn't full of herself like many government employees seem to be. The clerk wasn't either, amazingly enough.
The class started with a video hosted by some dorky jackass named Perry King from around 1988. The celebrities in the video included Connie Sellecca, Al Unser, Jr., and William Shatner (he mentioned hosting Rescue 911), and some other clowns no one would know from a baboon's ass. It was as lame as you'd expect, and beside the handing over of $80 to the clerk outside the courtroom, the most painful part of the class.
After the flashback, the instructor brought out some overhead slides which would have been drop-dead boring except the slides were a type of icebreaker. After that, the class was mainly a discussion of the tickets we've had, our driving styles (with one guy admitting he tailgated people to get them out of his way), why you basically cannot get out of tickets once they've been issued, and so on. In addition, it was probably a multiculturalist's wet dream: people from different races, religions, and age groups coming together, in this case, to acknowledge the traffic court system is bullshit.
The class had its moments for sure. For example, after the mandatory "it could happen to you" story told by a twenty-three-year-old who drove drunk and survived a horrendous crash, a mother went on about her college age son that did little but drink and once was jailed for DWI. I understand her concern, sure, but it took her almost twenty minutes to understand that for her son (or for teenagers, who she also seemed to have a general concern about), that the story we heard might convince some people to stop drinking and driving, it might not work for others.
Overall, other than the loss of money I really could use right now, it wasn't a bad experience. I met some really good people (although I'll probably never see any of them again) and the class itself was almost fun. Don't think I want to go back, however. :-)