Op-Ed: The Dumbest Decision You Could Ever Make
Another senseless tragedy leads me to believe that there are few things dumber than getting drunk and deciding to drive.
Editor's Note: Mike Schoemer is Patch's associate regional editor for the northeast Twin Cities region. But his comments in this editorial are as relevant in Inver Grove Heights and Dakota County as they are in Wright or Hennepin counties.
I'm going to try not to lecture anyone today.
I'm going to try, but I'm not promising anything.
I'm not promising anything because, frankly, I'm sick to my stomach. And I'm sick of this happening.
When I was 18 years old, which was 20 years ago, my parents came into my bedroom one summer morning and told me that a classmate–a friend–had passed away, tragically, after he left a party on his motorcycle and never made it to his destination.
I had seen him the night before. I knew.
Fast-forward 20 years later. I grabbed my phone just for a moment, checking Facebook.
Amazing how receiving the same sort of news has changed.
Three people, whom I knew, were senselessly killed on Interstate 94 west of my former town of West Fargo. The driver who caused the accident was headed the wrong way in the wrong lane.
I had driven that stretch before. I knew.
Folks, you can play with fireworks. You can not wear your lifejacket while boating. You can even decide to ride a motorcycle without wearing a helmet.
But the dumbest decision you could ever make is getting behind the wheel after "having a few."
And the fact that it's 2012, and we know now so much more than we knew then, in 1992, and people STILL do it, is beyond my simple mind's level of comprehension.
Yet, with cabs, buses, trains and cell phones, we decide to put our fate, and the fate of others, in our own hands.
We've seen too much evidence. The worst things can happen. DUI related vehicular homicides are still responsible for one-third of all traffic fatalities in Minnesota.
Ask the Deckert family. Ask the parents of the boy from Buffalo, killed by a man from St. Michael. Ask the Mickelsons and Deutschers, who lost their son, daughter and granddaughter, and another unborn grandchild in North Dakota Saturday night.
It's senseless. And it's sick.
To quote a classic movie: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore."
Diane Baum
1:53 pm on Tuesday, July 10, 2012
now what you need to do is to reprint this several times more...because no matter how often its said, there is always someone who thinks, "it isn't me!" My husband when he was 19 was in a car with a pal who was celebrating his graduation from high school. The next morning they were found in a cornfield, having gone well over 100 mph on icy gravel roads. Their car flipped many times. 18 yr old driver died. My husband had a broken neck and almost died himself. In fact he did stop breathing and was almost froze to death. This was in Morris, MN in December 1983. It was a bitter cold month here in the metro, so imagine that plus more in outstate MN. Thank God he survived. He had to learn to walk all over again. He could have been a vegetable, or disabled or brain dead from coma. But he survived and has to live each day knowing his pal DIED...all because of their partying! ( I wrote a book about it: "There but for the grace of God (plus a few good friends & family) Go I."