Got Me A Ticket

Yes, I am a Scofflaw. Well, sort of. I was perfectly on-time for a conference yesterday in the City of York until a road was closed. That's the problem with planning  to be on time. No margin. So, I walked in 5 minutes late and that was no big deal. However, since it was early and I was in a hurry, I didn't really assess the road I parked on as carefully as I could have to try and detect traffic flow...I parked the wrong way on a One-Way street. When, the day ended it was pretty obvious that my car was parked the wrong way since all of the traffic was going the other way. I prepared myself for the inevitable. An invitation to contribute to the York City Parking Authority or get the Boot on my car if they could finger me in their town again.

When I saw the ticket flapping on my windshield I got pissed. Where is the One-Way traffic sign? There was a parallel road to the road that I parked on with a median of several feet and I considered that this was a clue that I should have thought about before parking, suggesting a split road, with a One-Way on both sides. But, York City has some crazy traffic patterns and I still thought that a sign was required. I looked around to make sure that I was not missing seeing the One-Way sign. Nope, nowhere to be found.

So, I called the Parking Authority to register my complaint. Before I called, I thought of some pretty nasty epithets I could call the City of York. But, I kept my cool and was friendly, yet I was resolute that a sign was needed in that location and that the Parking Authority could not assume that out-of-towners like me knew the roads. Mary called back today...she is one up from the person I chatted with yesterday. Her first message was along the lines of "too bad pal" so I called back and left another message that there should have been a sign on the road. I suppose she checked my voicemail because she made a visit out to the site and noted that the sign that had been there previously was no longer there.

Thus, she is recommending to her supervisor that the ticket by voided and I should get the decision on Friday morning. I think the case will be resolved in my favor now that I have the fact that a previous One-Way sign is no longer posted on the road. She blamed neighborhood teens for the vandalism.

We sometimes think that in order to be heard we have to act pushy and aggressive and perhaps even be an ass. I have always found a calm yet insistent demeanor to be much more favorable in increasing the probability of being heard and receiving a positive decision. This is perhaps not a whole lot different when people argue about faith and religion. We don't have to get upset or angry. We should have a quiet confidence that our faith in Christ is reasonable. It is hardly the blind faith sometimes supposed. There are things hard to understand in the Scriptures (as Peter says some of Paul's writings are) yet we should have the assured attitude that the One who is the "Way, the Truth, and the Life" is surely worth casting our faith upon.