CELL PHONES--Thank You Dick Tracy and James T. Kirk

   Two way wrist radios and, "Kirk to Enterprise" have become a reality. Cell phones. I haven’t been a fan of them since I almost ran a pedestrian down who walked out into the middle of the street without paying attention to anything except the conversation he was having with someone on his cell phone.  I was coming through a busy intersection with cars behind me and couldn’t stop without causing an accident.  When I honked at the person they stopped and gave me a dirty look like it was my fault that he was oblivious to what was going on around him.  

   Just the other day I sat in the new X-Men movie next to a young man who took out his cell phone and played games and texted during the movie.  I was driving home from that same movie and my son, who went to the movie in his own car, pulled up alongside of the car I was riding in and when I looked over at him he was using his cell phone while he was driving.

   I don’t know how many times I have sat near a person who for some odd reason believes I should be a party to his or her conversation on their cell.  They talk as though greater volume is a superior communication technique and the person on the other end will be able to hear better if they raise their voice to an unpleasant level.  It is almost like they are shouting to everyone, "I have a cell phone! Listen to me! What I have to say is much more important that what is going on in your lives!"

   I have become worried that in the future all babies born will automatically have a blue-tooth device surgically implanted in their ear, or attached to their wrist, or engraved on the palms of their hands.  We may even evolve until cell phones become part of our DNA and all we will have to do is press our noise or pull on an ear lobe to activate our inbred communication device.

  One ringy dingy ringtone.  Two ringy dingy ringtones.  “Hello.  Is this the party to whom I am speaking?”