Road Rage

Heading down the highway, I often notice the road sign "Drive Slow."  Granted, there's not always a lot of room on road signs so they are often abbreviated, but when The Department of Transportation can make longer road signs that say "Do Not Enter" and "Columbus (I 70 symbol) West," as well as many other beauties, such as "Road Work Next 5 Miles" or "Grand Canyon National Park 4 Miles," then why would anyone make a grammatically incorrect sign, and worse, the "higher ups" or management not send the signs back to be redone correctly?

Obviously, the sign should read "Drive Slowly."  "Slow" is an adjective and modifies nouns and pronouns; "slowly" is an adverb and modifies verbs ("drive" is an action verb), adjectives, and other adverbs, and tells how (Drive how?  Slowly), where, when, why, or to what extent.  Yes, the current signs reflect idiot usage that most people think is correct because they've seen it that way so often on the roadways, courtesy of the uneducated, uncaring, simple-minded dolts at The Department of Transportation.


We have become a nation of complacent imbeciles and lazy slugs who care nothing about details, doing things well, and least of all, using good grammar.  We tolerate stupidity.  We have become a Nation of Nincompoops.


Granted, this may seem like an inconsequential detail to some, but if we let this slide, what else that's incorrect do we begin to ignore?  Where does it stop?  Would we want our surgeons to be incorrect?  Would we want our airplane pilots or journalists to be incorrect in their jobs?  Certainly, there should be people who find this blasphemy a blight.  Have others spoken out about this mutilation of our language?  If so, why has their call for action to change poor grammar on our highways been ignored?  I am puzzled.  It has been said many times over that the future of our country is our children, so do we want our children to see these signs that show such a lack of learning and respect for education?  If we don't care, then why should our children care?  Is this what we want?

The Department of Transportation is part of the government and therefore, a business.  Is this good business to present a company in an unfavorable light by displaying an attitude of slovenly behavior?    This isn't a catchy marketing slogan that's grammatically incorrect; it's a flagrant disrespect for good language skills.  What about how others perceive us?  Do we want businesses and people in other countries to see our business flaws and look down upon us? 


I, for one, cannot condone this incompetency, and am calling and e-mailing The Ohio Department of Transportation's Director and assistant directors.  Here is the Contact Page for ODOT:  http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Contacts/Pages/default.aspx.  I urge people to make a stand and demand our government use correct grammar in this situation.  Rise up, not quick, but quickly, and don't let government bring us down to Big Brother's dumbed-down level of inadequacy.  Please fight for correct language, and ask that road signs be changed from "Drive Slow" to "Drive Slowly."