Friday, November 9, 2007

Weekend

Yay for weekends! Today I am heading to a scrapbook weekend with some girlfriends. I'm very excited. I have not done anything scrapbook-y since my eye surgery because it's just been too difficult to focus and I would have ended up with a headache. Thankfully my eyes are doing ok enough that I will be able to enjoy the weekend and get some work done. It's been far too long.

Yesterday I had a prefectly good rant for the day all lined up until the smoker-lady ruined my air and got me off track, so today I would like to discuss the thing that I intended to discuss yesterday.

I was listening to the radio and the news for the morning had a little blurb about a family of 5 that was hit my a drunk driver the night before. The parents in the car were both killed at the scene, and the 3 children are, I assume, still in the hospital with injuries but expected to recover. The drunk, of course, was uninjured. It occured to me while I was having this brief sad moment that those little kids will wake up from this terrible ordeal of pain and confusion and not have a Mommy or Daddy to comfort them. Their entire world has changed literally in an instant by some stupid 22-year-old kid who decided to drive his truck even though he had been drinking.

It got me thinking...what kind of good has ever come from alcohol? Has anyone ever cured a disease while drinking? Has anyone ever performed surgery after a drink or two? Do you ever hear about the drunk guy on the corner doing good deeds? It just seems to me that so many negative things surround the stuff. People do things they would not do with a clear head while drinking. Familes are torn apart. Relationships ended. Bodily injuries occur. Internal damage occurs. Money wasted that could have provided for a family. Addictions born out of a habit.

It just doesn't make good sense to me. Why even mess with someone that has such a negative potential? These poor kids, I can't even imagine how scared and confused they must be. I hope this kid goes to jail for a long, long time. I hope he feels bad for the rest of his life. I hope he is reminded every single day of the lives he has affected and ruined because of his stupidity. I hope that the guilt and shame eats him alive. He deserves it. It's just such a stupid thing that doesn't have to happen. Where on earth could he possibly have been going that he couldn't wait until he was sober? Why couldn't he pick up the phone and call someone for a ride? It makes me sad and angry...enraged might even be a better word. Why do people have to drink and drive?

2 comments:

Jen Hoover said...

well Brandi, I agree with your reasoning and d&d is a HORRID crime, it should be one of those that is punishable by making the criminal have to somehow deal with explaining to the living victims his/her actions. They should have to work in a morgue!
sad... those poor kids!

Ann Marie said...

I agree, the choice, the behavior of driving while drunk was stupid indeed, with tragic consequences. I feel so for those children--2 of my former students lost their mother and grandmother in a car accident last week, not sure if alcohol was involved or not, but it is horrible all the same.

Just to play devil's advocate, though, research has shown that one alcoholic beverage a day (red wine I guess is best) is supposed to have good effects on your heart and blood vessels... And of course, throughout the Bible, drinking wine as part of a celebration is pretty much the norm. I think, as in everything, moderation and common sense are key.

I drove drunk or at least pretty tipsy when I was in college. Quite frankly, it was the stupidity and arrogance of youth. You (general you of course) think that nothing will ever happen to you, that you are invincible, that nothing can go wrong in your world. I thank God I did not hurt or kill anyone. I have a good friend who still drives drunk, and it bothers me to no end. Finally to the point where she won't do it when she goes out with us, b/c she knows we will insist on driving her... but she still does it on her own, and I just hate it...