Last December I got a speeding ticket. Since then I have been careful not to speed. While not speeding myself, I have become more aware of how others drive... at what speed, I mean.

I have learned that not speeding is dangerous.

Example: A few weeks ago I was driving around the Rondout Reservoir, going the speed limit or a little faster, and someone in an SUV was right on my tail. (I mention the SUV because I drive a very small car, a Prius C.) I tapped my brakes to signal that he was close, really close, too close. Bad idea. Instead of backing off he got closer, dangerously so, and turned his headlights on high.

I would have pulled over to let him pass but:

a) there was snow piled on the shoulder so I couldn't see where to pull off,

b) he was so close that I was afraid he would hit me, and

c) we were the only people on the road. I was afraid that if I pulled off he might too. I felt vulnerable.

He wanted to scare me, and he succeeded.

In addition to fearing that he might hit me (with his vehicle or otherwise), I also was afraid of driving home with him behind me. If he was crazy enough to endanger his life as well as mine he might be crazy enough to act in other dangerous ways. I didn't want him to know where I lived. He was clearly angry, and angry people are irrational maniacs. I know this.

What I did: I turned up a different road, not mine. He blasted past honking his horn. In case I hadn't yet noticed that he was pissed off.

I stayed on the different road for a while, trying to calm down, then I turned around and continued home. As I already said, I was scared. Which was his intention. He was using a psychological approach appropriate for a terrorist or bully. Terrorists are bullies. And not quite sane. As I also already said.

Since that day I do speed a little bit, enough to fit in, enough to be safe. And I do pull off to let faster drivers pass me, now that the snow has melted and I can see where the road ends and the ditch begins. But I have not forgotten the bully's anger, that thin line between being safely invisible inside my little car and becoming the way-too-visible focus of an angry driver in a big vehicle.

Perhaps the Prius also is a target? The car choice of tree-hugging liberals? If I were driving a black Hummer flying a skull and crossbones (as I once saw in lower Manhattan), would he have become enraged? Would he dare to intimidate a Hummer, even if it were going the speed limit? Perhaps a Hummer would impress rather than enrage him.

Symbols are powerful. The cars we drive, the way we dress, our speech and body language — all indicate our backgrounds, our personalities, and our political affiliations, even for those of you who think you are not political.

When I recall my experience with the Rondout Reservoir Bully I think of other bullies I have known. Like my cousin, now dead. I had to rescue my little brother from this cousin. He, my nine-year old brother, was being repeatedly dunked in the lake until he couldn't breathe and was sobbing. My cousin (twelve) was like a cat toying with a mouse. Why, I wonder? Where do bullies get their motivation or sense of entitlement? Are they all angry, like the Rondout Reservoir Bully? Are terrorists motivated by anger as well as political rebellion?

Speaking of bullies, we are now in the midst of another presidential political season. The candidates spend too much time talking about how or why they are better than the others, like a bunch of posturing twelve-year olds in the schoolyard. One candidate in particular crosses the line from boasting to bullying. This comes across in his tirades against those whom he imagines are unlike (and perhaps a threat to) him. Being an angry man he has successfully ignited a multitude of like people. I understand that many Americans have problems with their lives. So do I. But I don't understand the outwardly directed anger, as though our current problems were the fault of "others." Liberals? Hispanics or other immigrants? Competent women (like Megyn Kelly)? Prius drivers?

Terrorists, like bullies, take out their frustration with the rapidly changing world on others. They attempt (and often succeed) to strike fear into those whom they suspect of being "different," of inconveniencing them, of altering the status quo. As if their one way of perceiving reality were the only "right" way. Are bullies (and/or terrorists) motivated by fear? Do they worry that they will become as invisible or powerless as those at whom they direct their insults — a nine-year old child, for instance? Or are they so unimaginative that their only method of persuasion is that of dehumanization and violence? Haven't they learned that jamming a square peg into a round hole still doesn't change the shape of the hole?

Going the speed limit is dangerous when one is followed by an impatient bully. But bullying also is dangerous. I worry about where our American journey is taking us — and who might be driving.