Most people enjoy a drink here and there. Some enjoy a few too many here and then there. The question is, even in that altered state of brain activity time, do you go the intelligent route or do you make a dumb decision? I have made that dumb decision probably a handful of times in my life. One of those times, I was not fit to drive due to lack of sleep and too much to drink and the other few times was an on the edge of I knew I was close but was it worth it to take the chance? Fortunately I did not hurt anyone else and cause years of damage to them and myself and didn't do anything to aler the fact that maybe I was close. I believe most people that drive drunk are in the gray area of not knowing whether they should or shouldn't. Having 10 years of drinking (okay add 2) under my belt, I can say, don't even question it, don't do it. Others don't give a shit and feel they have not had issues before and feel they "drive better drunk". I've heard this and while I see that most drunk drivers drive slower, your mind is not there to be doing anything but stumbling around the bar acting like an idiot. At least you don't have a 1/2 ton to 4 ton weapon of destruction behind you. Plus, the cost even without an accident being at laest $8k, that should be a huge deterrent alone.
Now, at the age of 31, I'd rather sleep in my car (keys in the trunk of course due to the DUI laws of CO), do the call of shame and have my wife or family member pick me up or honestly, I'd know if I am driving and someone else didn't offer, I better be my Designated Driver and not even get to the question mark zone. It's not worth it.
I find the fact professional athletes that make at least a quarter million a year, and can get free rides home because the league and teams have a service to do so, decide to take their lives and others lives at risk, completely ridiculous. I can tell you the last two weeks hopefully have opened some eyes amongst professional athletes that were more concerned about getting questioned for calling a free ride service early in the morning instead of what Josh Brent decided to do and cost the life of his friend and teammate Jerry Brown. And if you are so concerned, it's not like you can't call another service and use your own money. $80 to me when I made those decisions was a TON of money. $80 to a professional athlete is probably equivalent to $5 to one of us. You would rather have it in your pocket, but if you lose it, so be it. Josh Brent has to live with his decision for the rest of his life. I believe like last weeks homicide/suicide involving Javon Belcher, it will make an impact on enough people to make changes in some athletes and people's lives, but it will never solve the problem and that is life. No matter what we do or see or try to learn from, we are human, we make mistakes and they get repeated. My hopes are enough people can point to an instance like this to alter mistakes they have made before or would have made in the future.
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