S.C. Rep. Rex Rice made a joke last Thursday night at the meeting of the Pickens County Republican Party. The joke was funny largely due to the seriousness of the issue.

“I saw a bumper sticker in Columbia that said, ‘Honk if you love Jesus; text if you’re ready to meet Him.”

Rice knows that some proposed bills in Columbia call for a ban on sending text messages while driving. The city of Clemson isn’t willing to wait for a state law, and its council is already debating the matter.

One thing is certain: people who are distracted while driving become a danger on the road. Defensive driving requires that you are ready to make instant decisions. Certainly, if you are concentrating on either creating or reading a text message, you are less likely to notice sudden changes in driving conditions, such as a car pulling into your lane, or an animal crossing the road.

The government is constantly trying to find new ways to make the highways safer, whether it be through getting drivers under the influence of alcohol and drugs off the road, or requiring seatbelts. Therefore, banning the practice of texting while driving would seem to be within the government’s function.

On the other hand, there is the question of how far we can go in limiting possible distractions. After all, who is to say which distractions are the most dangerous? A car radio can be a distraction, whether you’re trying to find a good station or you become engaged in the conversation on a “talk” radio show. Should we ban radios from cars?

Certainly cell phones in general are a likely source of distraction. Of course, in an emergency situation, a cell phone can be used to call for help. So does that make it a tool of danger or safety?

The fact is, there is only so far the government can go in protecting citizens from themselves. Part of “freedom” is having the freedom to fail.

But when someone’s “freedom” becomes a danger to others on the highway, perhaps it is time to step in.

Another argument is that such a ban would be almost impossible to enforce. After all, South Carolina has a seatbelt law, yet officers are not allowed to stop someone whom they see is not wearing a seatbelt. They have to ticket someone who has been stopped for some other reason.

One proposed state law allows law officers to check the date and time of a phone’s last message as evidence. But if more than one person is in the car, the possibility that one of the passengers used the phone to text makes that an unlikely source of proof that will hold up in a South Carolina court.

So how do you feel? Should texting while driving be banned? Go to www.theeasleyprogress.com and vote. If you have any comments on the matter, send them to brobinson@theeasleyprogress.com. Be sure to let us know if we can use your name with your comment in next week’s paper.