Letter to the Editor: Clyde Webb

This letter was originally published in the Nashville Tennessean in the 1950’s-60’s.

As I think of the terrible slaughter of our American people on the highways I am reminded of the words spoken by Solomon, The wisest man who ever lived, “Where there is no vision the people perish.”

Surely, if all the people who get behind the wheels of our vast number of automobiles, trucks and buses would stop for one moment and think seriously of the suffering, pain, heartaches and lost lives of individuals-sometimes whole families wiped out-then we would have a vision of this terrible catastrophe that has befallen us in this modern age.

Hats off to Col. Hilton Butler and his magnificent team of patrolman for the good job they are doing, but they need help from you and me. Modern war weapons are harmless if handled properly by the user. Even atomic power is being used for peaceful, constructive purposes. So it is with the automobile. Properly used it is one of the best inventions man has ever devised. But placed in the care of drivers who have no care for themselves or anyone else it is one of the most destructive weapons in the world. More people are killed each year on our highways than were killed in three years of Korean war. Remember the happiness in our very souls when the world war ended? Many of us never think of the size of the total of our traffic deaths. Try hard to visualize some of the scenes of destruction of life and property that follow careless and reckless driving. For safety ends where carelessness begins.

Clyde Webb

Hohenwald, Tenn.