In reading what Shane Singh had to say about a billboard in East Lansing, (“Billboard doesn’t serve and protect” SN 5/23), I could not hold my tongue. Here someone clearly states their objection to a billboard by calling it “threatening.” Is this the biggest threat I have to worry about when driving through East Lansing? All this time I have been fearing for my life as people pass me on the right and in turn lanes at excessive speeds, cutting me off without so much as a signal (and sometimes slamming on their brakes afterward), running stop signs and lights, feeling they are “in the right” at all times.

I am a taxpaying American (I have to use all of the typical patriotic keywords, too) who pays high insurance bills, not as a result of my own driving, but for the idiotic, selfish things other drivers have done. In driving from my residence in Lansing to Meridian Mall, I can count an average of four accidents I have narrowly escaped, and dozens of traffic violations, each one “threatening” to add to my insurance costs each month. I think what should have been said was that taxpaying Americans don’t like to read things that remind them “it isn’t all about us.”

Focus more on the road, and take heed to what the police are trying to tell you. Last I knew, that “price” was $95 for doing five mph over the speed limit, but it could be a lot worse - should some sport utility vehicle pull out in front of you, and you are too busy worrying about that threatening thing you just read on that billboard you just passed. I’ve seen signs that say “Please Slow Down,” and I don’t think it seems to be doing any good. And, if we want to get more patriotic, shouldn’t the police have freedom of speech as well?

And to say that police everywhere should “start thinking about why they exist before they bully the very people that employ them” is foolish. Yes, they are paid from my tax dollars. Does this mean I can get out of traffic tickets because I am their boss? Can I fire them? Heck, if the public is in charge, I’d seriously question authority! We’d be lucky to have police officers at all, because of poor upper management! Law enforcement officers are there to do just that: enforce the laws. Try being a police officer. See what they have to put up with.