Common sense is not always so common.

Here are six examples of what I think is "common sense" but that others apparently don't.

1. Don't talk on your cell phone -- much less text -- while you're driving.

Come on now, do you really think you can talk on a cell phone and pay attention to traffic? And don't tell me it's like eating a cheeseburger or punching buttons on your radio. When you're on the phone, in your car, you're not paying full attention to traffic -- the sounds as well as the sights -- and you're much less likely to drop the phone if you have to than you are the cheeseburger. Besides, I can eat a cheeseburger or punch buttons on my radio while still paying attention to other cars. Can you really do that when you're having a conversation with someone not in your car? In my own town, an otherwise normal woman drifted into the bike lane -- a narrow strip of the road, barely three feet wide, not protected, just marked by a line of paint on the pavement -- and ran head-on into a little girl, killing her. The driver was talking on her cell phone. Only a few weeks later, a guy rolled his truck while on his cell, killing his daughter. I've never heard of a tragic accident like this attributed to a cheeseburger.

Common sense: Wait till you're out of traffic, or even parked, to get that cell phone call or make one.

2. Some guns need to be registered.

So you own a gun. Maybe several. That's cool. A shotgun for hunting birds, a .22 for target practice, something bigger for game you're allowed to hunt. But do you really need to own an automatic weapon? A machine gun? Or one that can easily be converted to automatic? What would you use that for? Shooting multiple elk? I don't dispute your right to own one, but we, your fellow citizens, need to know that you own it, so that if it's ever stolen, we can track its disappearance and try to find out where it is now. (And no one should be allowed to buy one at a gun show, where it's not traced.) When I was in Viet Nam, I learned to shoot the M-16, which extruded an amazing 20 bullets in less than that many seconds. I don't think the average hunter needs a gun like that, do you? If you own one, we, your fellow citizens, need to know where it is.

Common sense: We have a right to know who owns powerful weapons in our communities. Their disappearance may be a cause for alarm. Register those puppies, just like you register your car, which, like that gun, is benign until, in the wrong hands, it kills somebody.

3. For heaven's sake, legalize marijuana!

Marijuana makes people silly or introspective or both. It lulls them into a sort of trance and makes them think they're smarter than they are. It also makes gives them the munchies. But it doesn't make them violent. You've never heard of the police being called to the scene of a violent crime and saying that it was because the perps were smoking pot, right? Let's legalize it and collect the substantial revenues that would come from taxation. We could pay for health care for the least fortunate among us without raising anyone's taxes. Admit it: Wouldn't you pay a pretty heft price for a bag of pot without risk?

Common sense: Lots of adult Americans smoke pot, and they don't cause any trouble. No bar fights. No domestic violence. It's a miracle substance, one of the few cheaply-grown weeds that gives people pleasure and causes no pain -- in fact, in the case of its medicinal form, actually relieves pain. And no, it's not a sure gateway to other drugs -- coke and speed, etc. -- because those are addictive. Pot isn't. If you run out of pot, you don't knock over a drugstore. Legalize it and collect the taxes.

4. Reject any religion that calls for killing those who disagree.

I'm not naming names (or religions) here, but if my religion calls for me to kill all those who don't agree with my idea of God and what He (never She) wants me to do in this life, I'm criminally disturbed. I need counseling. No credible prophet -- Jesus, Mohammed, et al -- ever preached taking out those who didn't ascribe to my belief. And keep in mind that it's just a belief: You don't have The Answers any more than I do; we're all just guessing. So don't kill me because I don't think your Answers are right, and I won't kill you. Agreed? How hard is that? And, by the way, I don't think it's just the Islamists or any other group who are guilty of this kind of thing: Have you ever heard of the Inquisition? The Catholic church centuries ago hunted down and tortured and murdered many non-believers. They just don't like to talk about it. All religions harbor nutcases who take things too far, for their own selfish and mis-guided or even delusional means.

Common sense: All the leaders of the world's religions need to sit down and talk about what is the same about their beliefs -- which I suspect comes down to respecting others and loving them, or at least tolerating them, certainly not killing them -- and come to a universal declaration of some kind that would involve all religions and denounce those who violate the basic human rights included in all religions.

5. Everyone should have basic health benefits.

Doesn't it stand to reason that we should all, rich or poor, be able to go to the doctor when we're sick -- especially when we're really sick? Can any of us, whatever our political stance, think that a sick child shouldn't have access to a doctor? Or someone with cancer, regardless of age? I hear the objection: Take the kids, or yourself, to an emergency room, where you can't be denied. But chemotherapy isn't administered in ERs. The fact is that many in our otherwise healthy and wealthy society can't go to a doctor when they're sick, even deathly so, because they don't have insurance -- meaning that no one will agree to pay the cost they may not be able to. If it's within our means as a nation, a country, to be sure that none of our citizens has to suffer needlessly, shouldn't we find a way to ensure that?

Common sense: We may not all be assured a nice house to live in, or a nice car, but we should all have a guarantee that someone will try to keep us alive if we need it. This isn't a luxury; it's sort of a basic human right. Most of the developed countries in the world provide it. Lord, even Cuba provides it! Come on, America, shape up!

6. Don't run up more debt than you can reasonably expect to pay off.

I heard a segment on NPR recently about a woman who had financed her college education and the launch of a new business on credit cards and who now has a debt of over $100,000 to pay off and no way to do it. Hello? What am I missing here? In her defense, she said she thought she could get it paid in five years -- that's $20,000 a year plus interest -- but, of course, the economy went sour, and now she's stuck. Well, duh! Not much sympathy here. If you don't have it, and don't have a fairly good plan for earning it, don't spend it! By the way, I'm not a foe of credit cards. In fact, I think you should have several, as it increases your borrowing ability in case you need it somewhere down the line, and it also decreases the chance that your credit card card company will price you out of the market with interest charges, etc. But you really need to keep them all paid down. Think about it: If you borrowed money from the bank to buy a car or a house and then didn't/couldn't pay them back, you'd expect them to re-claim the car or the house (ouch!). But credit card debt is sort of invisible except as it appears on that statement you get every month. There's nothing to re-possess . . . except your good credit standing, which is hard to get back once you've lost it.

Common sense: It's way too easy to swipe that card through a machine and walk out of a store with merchandise and your cash intact. But it's all being toted up somewhere, with added charges, and will come back to bite you in the end. I remember complaining to my mother once in a grocery store that writing out a check was a big hassle, and she said: "That's the point. When you have to write it all down -- twice -- you're more likely to pay attention to what you're spending." Don't charge more than you're convinced you can pay back in a month or two.

So it just seems that some things I thought were "common sense" -- meaning so obvious that it's hard to believe they aren't adopted universally -- apparently aren't. There are many more. I'm sure you know a few yourself.

How about simple decency, respect for privacy and the rights and beliefs of others? How about kindness, tolerance, love of learning and the arts, etc. Respect for women? Reverence for children and their potential to make the world a better place? To be sure they're properly cared for? Aren't these, and more, what we, as humans, are all about? Aren't these some of the values that make our lives not just tolerable but actually pleasurable, even worthwhile?

So what do we do about those who would deny the rest of us these rights? (See #4 above.) Do we really have to track them down and kill them? That's always been the easy way to get rid of those who don't agree with us. Shouldn't we first try to talk to them? If talk fails, we can always track them down and kill them. But . . .

Common sense is not so common after all, is it?