Posted On: December 5, 2005, 3:57 pm CST

Posted By: Michael E Harp

I find it very interesting that the judgment of society is so bipolar when it comes to blame and justice. The courts seem to go out of their way to provide a defense to many doers of violent crimes blaming "Temporary Insanity" as the causation thus eliminating or moderating the responsibility this seems to be appropriate when a mother drowns her own children. When it comes to drinking and driving, the bar keeps rising to the point of holding everyone to the same arbitrary standards of .08, which may or may not have any impact on impairment on an individual bases or the cause of an accident for that matter. While it makes everyone feel good to set these strict standards, in realty is dose little to improve the judgment of the alcoholic or dependent drinkers that seem to not have a choice whether they take the next drink or not. When will the will meaning lawmakers realize that drunken people make poor decisions as a whole and to slap around the Alcoholic (Alcoholism which is classified as a disease) because their symptoms have been manifested on the sober. Let's be sure give the police for greater control over society like roadblocks on main highways that have been reported to have had success rates of 6 to 10 arrests for every 1000 people delayed and searched, also not productive in the cure of the dieses. Taking away driving privileges and fining the drunk so they get fired or give someone that needs to be working to build their life an excuse to go on welfare or some State support is also a futile method to keep people sober. Sending a drunk to jail for poor decision or an event not remembered that may have resulted in a horrible accident is some how rewarding to the part of society that wants a measure of flesh, it has little or no impact when it comes to preventing drunk driving. We as a society are often so wrapped up in finding ways to punish the wrong doer (I think we must feel Godlike sending people to Jail or in the Christian model to Hell) we forget to address the cause of the behavior, or spend any effort to cure the disease. If in fact the drinking and driving is the cause of all of these fatalities and devastating to society, perhaps we should make a law requiring manufactures to put the breathalyzer in all of vehicles as standard equipment.. While we are at it lets outlaw drinking and for that matter smoking in America. Apparently laws are written as a reaction to outrage. it is outrageous and difficult to see a multiple fatality and when we discover presence of alcohol of over .08 that must have been the cause of the event, with or without an investigation, that drunk is going to jail, or that sinner is going to hell. The billions spent each year punishing people for drinking and drugging has do nothing to prevent or moderate the behaviors, lets get serious about prevention and curing disease. It is interesting that when an Alcoholic's behaviors destroy a marriage and family, in the courts eyes, the Alcoholic is a victim of disease and there is no defense for the so called innocent partner in marriage when it comes to paying maintenance alimony or property settlement. If the Alcoholic is caught driving under the influence or involved in an accident, they are charged with homicide and sent to jail; conviction is easy when outrage is involved. Next week let's discuss how many children drown in family swimming pools, V/S handgun accidents in the home whops no outrage with the swimming pool death, just an accident (waiting to happen, perhaps 100 times more often than an accidental shooting).

Don't you just love the idea about putting drunk drivers heads under the tires?