“Drive Sober or Your Life May Be Over”

 by JBH Wonders, 12/2015

The title of this article would be a preferable warning but the state currently has a campaign touting “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over”. This sounds like a command and not a compassionate plea for us to keep our wits about us when we are operating a motor vehicle. If one is mentally impaired they should be more concerned/worried about getting to their destination without killing themselves or someone else. Getting stopped by a law enforcement officer and getting a ticket (or worse) should not be the primary focus. The state could have come up with a better jingle or at least given some statistics about last year’s accidents and death count caused by impaired driving.

 

Many years ago when I was in my twenties, I made the mistake of hitting the bars one night and then trying to drive home. The details are not important but to simplify the event, I was stopped, curbed checked, arrested, and hauled off to jail. At the end of the trial and sentencing, the judge looked me in the eyes and stated that I should be thankful to the officer that stopped me as he may have saved my life that night. I don’t recall what the legal punishment was back then. It was not as harsh then as it is now. But I do remember the last words from the judge to me on that day. And I did not think much of it at that time but his words did finally resonate with me and I cleaned up my act.

So as I tried to allude to in my clicket article, in times past the state has at least attempted to relate messages to the public in a more diplomatic, respectful and logical manner. And in times past (at least in my case) their authority was used as an attempt to correct a problem and not to put the proverbial boot on our throats because some law was broken. Remember, “law enforcement officers” used to be called “peace officers”. It is not the intent of this article to slander the "men in blue". They have to obey orders. These "public service messages" are most likely authored by bureaucratic people in suits.

This article is posted shortly after posting another article concerning the “Click it or Ticket” campaign. These are obnoxious messages from the state that seem to be something for us to be concerned about.

Oh how I long for the fictitious town of Mayberry and sheriff Andy Taylor. Deputy Barnie was a bit of a state driven by-the-books guy but his actions would pale in comparison to to what we are seeing now.