Californians-How To Keep From Becoming Them

I've lived in this state all my life. It used to be very cool to live here. A laid back vibe was widespread. You could go down to the beach in the summer and have a bonfire at night. There was every different type of person alive here. And we felt good because we were good. From the migrant farm workers to the top of the states government, people had good intentions and had the state heading in the right direction.
       Then something happened. The politicians figured out how to keep us completely in the dark and to be thankful for everything we no longer have. This is the true story of something I no longer have, thanks to the state.
      I'm a crane operator for a steel mill and I work THE craziest schedule you could ever think of. I was commuting 70 miles a day but I didn't mind because I was driving my baby, my cherry, loaded, Mustang GT. I have never had an accident with 30 years of driving behind me. One night I got off of swing shift which ended at 11:00 pm. Traffic was light and I was going the speed limit in the number 2 lane (2nd from the left) on the 4 lane freeway. I was about 5 miles from home when I came up over a slight rise. I'm not sure I ever saw anything, but I knew something was in front of me. It was just one of those feelings. I hit my brakes and turned towards the median slightly. The next thing I knew, I was rolling upside down in my car going about 55 mph. I finally slid to a stop. I had my seatbelt on and I found myself hanging upside down by it. I had no idea what  had just happened. And then I looked over and there was a bunch of people standing on the side of the freeway yelling at me to stay in the car. My first thought was I must have lost consciousness because those people couldn't have got there before I had finished sliding. I knew one thing for sure. Californians are pretty aggressive drivers and not many of them stop or even slow down when you flip your car. So I was not going to stay there in the middle of the freeway upside down while the cars flew by on both sides of me. My airbags had worked and I wasn't really hurt considering the accident. So I released my seatbelt, slid out the window, and played Frogger until I made it to the side.
      When I got there I asked the people what had happened. They pointed up the freeway to the spot I thought I had seen something and lying on the ground was a black, crushed, new Harley Davidson Roadking laying in the number 2 lane. I couldn't believe it. Then the people told me it had been there for 25 minutes while they had been calling 911 to have it removed before someone (me) hit it. Four minutes after I hit it a California Highway Patrolman pulled up and called an ambliance and tow truck. They towed my car and the bike to the same place about 1 mile from the site of the wreck. My car was totaled.
      Like I said earlier, I'm a craneman. But if you read my earlier posts you know about the union. Bottom line, their pay is like their morality. Almost non existent. At the time gas was $5.00 a gallon and $750.00 a month. So I only had Liability insurance. And I really think that the insurance doesn't even matter, because they still screw you if you have full coverage. It ended up costing me $1200.00 to get my totaled car out of the impound. It turned out the motorcycle had been stolen and then laid down on the freeway by the thief who took off across the freeway and vanished. My insurance company actually said that the motorcycle had full coverage, but because it was stolen from out of state the carrier was balking at paying. They told me as long as the accident wasn't my fault, it would have to be paid by them. I knew it wasn't my fault so I didn't worry about it. Until I got the Accident Report from the Highway Patrol. They said it was my fault. Entirely. The insurance companies passed a under the radar law that is called the "Basic Speed Law" which states that if you hit something that isn't moving, it's your fault. If you're driving behind a delivery truck on the freeway and a refrigerator falls off the back, you better hope it's still moving when you hit it or you're screwed. I'm sure it saves the insurance companies a bundle by not paying claims. As we speak they are trying to pass a bill which will take away our right to have OEM replacement parts instead of the cheap crap the want us to accept.
         People, we have to make a stand! We have to or we will end up regretting it. It's not the criminals that are ripping us off, it's our politicians selling us out. And they don't know me well enough to sell me out!