Oprah You Never Fail to Disappoint: Oprah's No Phone Zone Pledge

I admit it; I was pretty excited about the Oprah No Phone Zone Pledge which is all the media buzz yesterday and today. Millions love Oprah, doing just about anything she tells them to do from voting the way she suggest to reading the books she recommends. Silly me, I had visions of drivers shaping up and driving safely. Ha! Have you read the pledge? Unfortunately, folks, the Oprah No Phone Zone Pledge is a publicity stunt, a joke. While you can tell people you took the No Phone Zone Pledge, you also get to choose how little you will do as evidence of your virtue.

All the Oprah No Phone Zone Pledge requires is that you stop texting while driving. Nothing more. Here is the pledge:

I pledge to make my car a No Phone Zone. Beginning right now, I will do my part to help put an end to distracted driving by committing to drive as responsibly as I can: (choose one)

1) I will not text while I am driving; or

2) I will not text while driving and will use only handsfree calling if I need to speak on the phone while I am driving; or

3) I will not text or use my phone while I am driving. If I need to use my phone, I will pull over to a secure location.

Notice how you can say your car is a no phone zone even if you are chatting away merrily on a headset? Anybody see a little something wrong with that? I sure do. Frankly, Oprah could have done a lot better. In fact, I found evidence on a blog posted back in January that Oprah pledge was better, much better, calling for a total ban on cell phone usage by drivers. I have not a clue why Oprah sold out, but she did.

"Committing to drive as responsibly as I can" suggests that only some people can make a meaningful commitment to driving and throughly accepts that you may "need to speak on the phone while I am driving." Seriously? No one needs to speak on the phone while driving. I gave that up a long time ago after the novelty wore off and it occurred to me that talking and driving didn't seem to mix. I hope you did, too. If you didn't, take your own pledge and do your part to be a safe and responsible driver.