Dear Drunk Driver,
I hope you had fun today, spending it like you always do- I hope your mom, dad, friends, everyone got to tell you they love you. I hope you got to kiss the person you love, and eat your favorite meal and watch your favorite shows. I hope your dog still has someone coming home to them, and your grandmother still has someone to cook for. I hope your best-friend has someone to call when they need advice, or if they want to go see a movie, and if they just want to drive around town for a couple hours.
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I wonder what you were thinking when you decided to go out, if you knew you were going to drink that much. I remember before I got my license, I had to take that five hour course, I'm sure you took it too- about drinking and driving, the dangers of it, prevention of it, etctera. It was boring, I mean you sit for five hours and listen to someone talk, but there's no way that you don't obtain at least some information. Sometimes, I think about what it's like to even be in the position where you decide to drive under the influence- do you think about the consequences? You must have known before you drank that you needed to drive, right? Why couldn't you call a cab, or your friend, sister, brother, cousin? Anyone?
Driving under the influence of alcohol is illegal, as we know, yet it conveniently occurs in the event of poor planning and lack of judgment. How do you know when too much is too much? YOU don't. The importance of planning prior to driving your vehicle after the alteration of your inhibitions at the hands of alcohol is crucial. Were those drinks that important, did you really have to take your car home? Couldn't you have just called someone? You didn't, you drove.
Now someones hurt. You're dead, someone else is dead or they're critically injured. At this point, it stops becoming about you- it becomes about the ones being affected, the families and friends of the victim(s). It's not about the car you wrecked, or the license you're going to lose, or the DWI, it's about what you took away from someone else. Now a parent is worried and they're trying to get a hold of their son or daughter after they see the accident on the news, and they can't- and if they do, until they do, they're in agony. Was that amount of drinking really worth it? Did you REALLY need it?
The consequences go beyond the legal actions taken to ensure justice, you could have or may have taken a life other than your own. Someone loses their child, whether they are thirty years old or two years old, that is someones baby. There shouldn't have to be an obituary, even for you; you should've, could've, would've gotten a cab, right? It's not a mistake to drink and drive, a mistake is drinking and having to pay for a ride home- driving drunk is selfish and unjustifiable. God loses sight when you decide to do something you know is wrong, he can no longer prevent what's to come, I believe that, at least.
Dear Drunk Driver, I hope you know what you caused and all of the things you took away from someone else, everyone else. Someone lost their best-friend, a parent doesn't get to see their child get married, you took it away because you didn't know your limit, or maybe you did and you thought you'd be okay to drive. Maybe you got lucky, and you didn't hurt anyone, and you don't have to live with that on your conscience- but if you did, I hope you think about it everyday. It's not a mistake, its selfish. Dear Drunk Driver, you drove- but I wish you didn't.
The deepest prayers to everyone that has lost someone they love, or suffered from the impact of a drunk driver. To Paige Ahearn's family, who lost their eighteen-year-old daughter to a drunk driver on October 11th, I pray you all receive justice, and that God guides you in the wake of this tragedy. As well as Ryan Bielawa's family, an Averill Park boy who was killed on October 28th from a drunk driver.
