Time Immortal

Teachers, as a profession, have a good model ondealing with the severity of drunk driving. If only other professions and trades could follow suit in this tight labour market! Not that economic need is necessarily an excuse, but if a profession or trade is already short staffed — e.g. the current shortage of nurses or electricians — then following the model of teachers, who usually have surplus members, would be problematic.

Regardless: as a teacher, if I am ever caught driving impaired, there is a good chance that I will lose my teaching certificate as a matter of professional misconduct. It’s almost a certainty unless I am, say, less than a drink over the limit. Or, at least that is how it is supposed to work…

Otherwise, the only problem I have with treating impaired driving as first-degree murder, real or attempted (aside from opposition if Murder One is a capital offence), is that, once plastered, the agent no longer has the mental capacity to have the ‘guilty mind’ and as such any criminal act committed after the becoming plastered has less ‘guiltiness,’ just as children who commit crimes generally do not know what they do wrong. Not that impaired drivers should be given leniency, but: ‘impaired’ crimes ought to have their own criminal definitions, and not be classified in ’standard’ definitions, and should have, instead of lengthy jail time, legal penalties which reduce the possibility of committing future crimes of a similar nature.

For example: long term license revocation, license limited to use of vehicle with ‘breathalizer ignition control’, discriminatory insurance rates — higher, much higher — driving curfews and restrictions (e.g. only for work, shopping or ‘wellness’ visits to doctors/churches), and/or disallowing ‘pleasure’ driving. Also, wage garnishment to support the victims of the crime, or to support groups like AA and AADAC if there were no victims, long term probationary status in one’s profession to make the next mistake very costly (but not deprive the industry of labour on the first strike). Tattoos indicating that one drove impaired might give social disapproval (and approval?) but sounds too close to wearing a Star of David to me.

The bonus of harsh, non-jail penalties are that they save money and keep a pretty tight fence around the life of the convicted, while still letting a first-time offender remain an otherwise productive citizen.

Ken adds: which, I suppose, raises the question…should society take a lenient stance toward even first-time impaired driving offenders? Rare indeed would be the person who could claim ignorance of the relevant statutes, or of the social stigma against the act. And unlike crimes of passion, which are spur-of-the-moment actions, impaired driving only occurs as the culmination of an evening spent engaging in a certain mode of behaviour. There is nothing spontaneous about climbing behind the wheel of a car whilst plastered, expect perhaps the deceleration one experiences some minutes later to the great inconvenience of a phone pole.

Rest in God’s peace, good lady:

Irene Sendler, known to many as the “female Schindler”, rescued children and babies imprisoned in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, smuggling them out in bags, or through the sewers, and hiding them with friendly families around Warsaw.

Donning a Star of David armband used by the Nazis to mark out Jews, she passed incognito in the ghetto to organise the escape plans.

She was eventually arrested by the Gestapo, tortured and condemned to death.

But members of 20-strong secret organisation managed to bribe a guard so she could escape. She lived for another 65 years.

This woman was a hero many times over, and some reports credit her with saving as many as 2,500 Jewish children, often times by ways and means that involved putting herself in considerable danger.

May she be triumphantly welcomed into God’s glorious kingdom!