First, I'll repeat what I wrote in an earlier thread. DUI is bad sh*t. It is tempting disaster every time someone does it. Society should come down hard on it. I had one episode, about TB's age, where I was with friends, i was driver, we went out of town to see a band. Didn't anticipate drinking but did so. Way too much. Suddenly the night was over and we had to get home. I jumped right in and fired up the car.
Being in a strange town (different state too), very lateat night, strange roads, drunk off my ass, with very close friends in (my dad's!) car, it was the dumbest thing I have ever done to this day (and I traveled to the Pitt-Toledo game in 04).
I made it, no stops, no accident. But I shouldn't have made it. I deserved to have a disaster. How freaking stupid. If there is a God, I figure He was looking out for my innocent friends (and other innocent drivers), and that's what saved me. I was that bad that night.
I never went to that extreme ever again, but yknow what, it wasn't the absolute last time I got in the car knowing I shouldn't. And I really think part of the reason why is that the actual punishment for DUI isn't threatening enough. Oh, it sucks when you're caught (I hear), very inconvenient and costs a pretty penny. But clearly is not enough to really, truly deter nearly anyone from doing it.
I say all that in pretext because if we really did what was best for society, TB would be slammed hard for what he did. Or actually, the threat of what could happen to him if caught (and punished) would have been bad enough would have kept him from even trying.
But, it ain't. It's kind of a joke really. A phony class you have to sit through, a fine. You might lose your license for a couple weeks if you were bad enough. But ultimately the state and mechanics and insurance companies all want you back on the road, so it's way too forgiving.
And since most people do it at some time, they seem willing to minimize it when others do. I wrote in another thread, a guy I know, a teacher, got busted 2 blocks from the school where he teaches. Really high BAC. Booked, lost his license (for only a short while, natch), name in the paper, everyone knew. Feared about his job. Turned out, they couldn't have cared less. Chatting with his boss, got the idea of "heh, heh, we've all been there". Last I heard, he has driven drunk again multiple times since. Even smacked into another car in a bar parking lot. Where the hell is the deterrence?
Long story short, since this issue seems to be one where many, many, many wrongs make a right ... not really of course, but society has decided so ... and because I'm a Pitt football fan, then dammit, if another guy gets to walk with inadequate repercussions for a bad thing, at least it should be a guy who will provide me entertainment out of it. Make 'm run the steps and miss the YSU game (with our luck he'd only have gotten injured in it anyway). That sucks to say, but as long as everyone else in the country has their head up their tails on this issue, why should he be a martyr?
