Please convey my heartfelt thanks to all the self-indulgent, half-witted idiots that put me and my passengers (not to mention themselves) in danger July 4 by feeling it was a great idea to crowd both shoulders of Route 29 south from 108 to Broken Land Parkway (and northbound from, at least, Shaker Drive) to get out of their cars and watch the fireworks. You exhibited all the predictability and menace of a rabid raccoon stunned by a well-thrown rock.

Thanks, too, to the Howard County Police for having a viable plan in place to deal with you fools. I will give the police credit in putting up a sign saying "No Parking or Standing" on the right shoulder. It wasn't a very successful approach. Apparently, those parked on the right shoulder couldn't read and those parked on the left shoulder thought it didn't apply to them.

Perhaps next year the police can simply take pictures of license plates and issue $100 civil citations.

Thanks again — now go back to texting.

Brent Cogswell

Columbia