Any Antidote to a Raging Mad Society?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 15, 1999 | by Stephen Goode

Rage is in. The Associated Press, or AP, for example, recently carried a story about a Dublin, Calif., man who pleaded guilty to knocking an owl from a tree and beating it with a board because its hooting disturbed him while he was watching Monday Night Football. And, shortly afterward, AP had a second story about a Des Moines, Iowa, woman accused of hiring a hit man to attack a neighbor's cocker spaniel.

Not to worry too much, though. In London, something's being done about rage, at least of the road-rage variety. Computer consultant Robbie Crawford, who fesses up to having been at one time afflicted with terrible road rage, has designed an electronic-display unit that fits neatly into the rear window of a car and flashes such messages as "Thank You" and "Sorry."

The recovering road rager has won the backing of safe-driving organizations and says that about 4,000 of his devices have been manufactured in Scotland. Crawford, who sunk his life savings into the invention, told the London Daily Mail, according to a dispatch from Reuters, "I was one of the worst road ragers. I made a prototype of the device. I tried it out myself and I found it really useful."