"I was drinking earlier, now I'm driving" - Kanye West (Power)
"Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive. - @ebertchicago
This week Ryan Dunn died. Apparently he, like so many people, was drinking and drove afterward. He was had a BAC of .196 which, to compare, is double the legal limit in New York where I'm from. People are quick to blame Roger Ebert for tweeting that he was a jackass. Ebert was quick to call him one. I'm somewhere in the middle. Ebert was right in what he said, but "too soon" doesn't begin to describe that statement. Ryan Dunn shouldn't have done it, but he's dead and so is the passenger in the car with him, so running it to the ground has no purpose.
On one hand, DUIs are treated so liberally by society anyway. Football players get them seemingly every week. One of my favorite podcastsm ESPN: Football Today, has a sound drop that says "Attention NFL players : Don't drink and drive" with a police siren in the background. In Florida, Donte Stallworth killed a man while drinking and driving. People are always in court for DUIs in Queens Criminal Court, because as many forget, it is a serios offense that carries a fine and or jailtime depending on the seriousness of it.
Now certainly some of these incidents are more serious than others. Some drive after a beer, some drive completely hammered, and clearly a distinction should be drawn. But why do it at all. Why put yourself in a risky situation especially when its not difficult to get out of it.
Wanna drink? Don't drive. Wanna drive? Don't drink.
By the way, I might put that on a t-shirt. I don't blame Dunn as much. Clearly it was a bad idea with fatal consequences but more importantly where were his friends. Did no one tell him that this was a bad idea? No one called a cab for this guy? Offered a ride? No sober designated drivers? I'm often too quick to blame society for stuff that happens but there are many ryan dunns who will die and have died because people just don't take drinking and driving seriously.
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