We can all agree that there’s no panacea for the plague that has rendered our Congress helpless in recent years. In-fighting in both houses has taken precedent over honest negotiation and compromise to find sensible solutions to legislation that truly benefits the American people. I see clear signs of that debilitating virus creeping into the thinking here in the commonwealth, and it stinks.

Take, for example, the current controversy over installing external cameras on our school buses, which are employed to catch vehicles illegally passing stopped buses. Who in his right mind doesn’t see this program as a step in the right direction to protect our school children?

When the bus stops, the stop-arm comes out and the camera activates. If a vehicle ignores the sign and passes the bus, it’s recorded on the camera and the driver of the vehicle is mailed a citation. That’s a pretty straight-forward law.

After a round of legislative maneuvering, our attorney general recently ruled that we might have to raise the red flag on this program, which is being considered in Albemarle County and is in varying levels of use elsewhere throughout the state. His reasoning is that there’s no provision in the law that specifically allows police departments to issue these summonses for delivery by mail. Is there a provision that specifically prohibits mailing them?

Mailed summonses are permitted for violators caught by traffic light cameras, then why not here? I’ve read that the original bill did, in fact, include language allowing mailed summonses, but it was stripped from the bill for wisdom that totally escapes me. As a result, cameras on buses are at high risk of being removed since many jurisdictions reportedly fear the cost of hand-delivering them would be too great.

I was staggered to read that Albemarle County estimates that as many as 6,000 vehicles illegally pass its 157 school buses every year, according to Jim Foley, director of transportation for Albemarle’s schools.

If hand delivering summonses is required, which is ridiculous, then let the violators bear the added costs, not the taxpayers. The important point is that this is a valuable step forward in protecting our children, and there is no credible reason for the legislative maneuvering that is holding it back.

Rich Jones is a Buckingham resident. His email address is putting2win@yahoo.com.