Only in Massachusetts

I love living in Massachusetts. It’s great! There is a deep and sincere commitment to education and people with disabilities, among other things. However, Massachusetts has a few foibles. One of which is requiring, by law, policeman to work as flaggers in construction zones. On Friday, as I backed out of my driveway I noticed a policewoman standing two houses up the street. She was out there to direct the non-existent traffic on my street. Keep in mind that my neighborhood is accessed only from the south. It has no cut through traffic at all. Days could go by with anyone driving down my street!

Then I drove through another construction zone. This section of road was flanked on either side by cones, detour signs and policeman. I’m not sure why neither the line of cones blocking off the road, nor the detour signs weren’t enough on their own but apparently they weren’t. Neither of these examples are as good as Marcy’s story of construction work on her street. Imagine a street ending in a cul-de-sac, maybe 12 houses on the street, a policeman and Marcy.

Naturally, as we drove past Marcy rolled down her window and said to the policeman, “Are you kidding me?”

His response, “It’s the law.”

We know it is, but really – Are you kidding me?