Dear Drunk Driver

You are at a party, a bar, in your home.  You choose to drink alcohol.  You don’t think much of it, everyone does it.  Your start to feel good.  If you don’t feel invincible, you don’t really care about anything.  Your sense are dulled, and you are sluggish.  It is time to go home.  It is time to go to another bar.  It is time to get fast food.  You do what you always do, you go for your car keys.  Only most of the time you are not drunk.  Now you are, and you are getting into a 2000 pound powerhouse of glass steel and rubber.  You do not think what it takes to operate this machine safely, heck you have been driving safely for years, you say to yourself, I can handle it.  You don’t think about what the energy in this car can do to the human body.  You don’t think about the horrific personal injuries you can inflict.  You don’t imagine what it must be like to lie in a bed, trapped in a body that no longer moves because it is paralyzed.  You don’t think about what it must be like for the injured Hoosier to lie awake at night and deal with the anxieties that afflict one who is responsible for taking care of a family and can no longer do that.  You don’t think about the little child who wakes up and has to be told that his mommy won’t be coming home because she has suffered wrongful death at the hands of one who does not think, or care..

It would be nice if an angel could show you what your thoughtlessness does to families, but that is not the world we live in.  We have to anticipate the consequences of our actions, and take steps to ensure that we do not needlessly endanger those around us.  Think while you are sober about the dangers.  Drum it into your head. Maybe, just maybe, if you do that you will choose not to be a drunk driver, and another family will be allowed to enjoy each other and the security a family provides.