the Daily Whale - 7 April 1991

I live in Illinois. From the behavior of drivers here, I gather that the state does not require holders of a driver’s license to have knowledge of its traffic laws—at least, not the pedestrian right of way laws. Nor do the police enforce these laws.

Imagine that you are a visiting space alien. After some study, you discover that the local government, popularly elected, issues edicts which the populace does not know about. It also declines to employ its police, the popular government’s apparatus for enforcing unpopular decisions. You seem to be the first to notice this strange discrepancy.

Would you believe it, or would you conclude that you must be hallucinating?