Another innocent child dead. When are we going to fix this issue once and for all?

Every day, this happens. We tsk, tsk. We decry another DUI with another innocent life taken, another shattered family, another set of destroyed dreams for the future.

What's missing?

We don't really do anything about it.

And tomorrow, it will happen again. On average? 37 per day killed by a drunk driver. And the next day, and the next.

And we STILL won't do anything about it.

We have the ability. What we lack is the will.

(Link HERE) 1. Treat death or injury by motor vehicle the same way we're supposed to treat those who murder or injure using a gun or other weapon.

Make death by DUI the exact, same thing as 1st Degree murder. Hold the driver/murderer accountable.

2. Punish DUI without an accident the same way as attempted murder.

Too many people drive believing they're NOT drunk... Or in the alternative, knowing they're drunk and not caring. It's long past time to actually hold people responsible in a way they'll never forget.

3. Make it illegal to drink ANY amount or take ANY kind of drug/substance that can reduce your reflexes/judgment.

4. Permanently suspend anyone's license convicted of DUI. Including so-called "work" licenses.

The catch phrase today is to "drink responsibly." Last year, (2024) over 13,000 innocent people were slaughtered as a result of "drinking responsibly."

In many states, the prison time can be as little as... nothing. Here in Washington State, you can kill someone with your car while drunk and get a minimum sentence of 31 months.

When it comes to actual Murder 1 in most states, the minimum is some version of a "life sentence."

For me, the mystery is "why?"

While I get the legal concept of malice aforethought and intent, the result is the same.

In your car, pull up next to someone and shoot them with a gun, and you get a life sentence (more or less).

But the victim is just as dead, either way.

Like most every problem confronting the people of this country, we know about the issue. We've known about it since the advent of the automobile. We talk about it, beg and plead about it, advertise about it.

We lecture, we whine, we snivel, we show pixelated images because God Forbid we MUST "protect" the sensibilities of the casual observer and keep them from witnessing reality.

And like every other issue confronting us, we either want to solve it, or we don't.

With 13,000 dead last year as a result of idiots getting behind the wheel?

It's clear solving this issue isn't on the table.

We know what has to be done. But we refuse to do it. And this year, 13,000 more will die because as a people, we refuse to do what must be done.

And all *I* can do is hope that you.... the reader... are not one of them.

A few thoughts on DUI, crime, drug manufacture or sale and illegal aliens:

 Actually, the ways to deal with DUI are rather simple:

1. Make it illegal to drink any amount and drive. Simply stated, reduce the BAC level to 0.0.
2. Impound the vehicle. If convicted, auction the vehicle off, paid for or not.
3. Permanently suspend the driving privilege. For life.

The responsibility for DUI begins and ends with the driver.

Knowing these are the penalties for ANY DUI conviction would sharply reduce DUI, and end any ambivalence on the part of drivers: "Did I drink too much to drive?"

Drinking and driving at all is automatically too much.

We either want to end this problem or we don't.

And that philosophy could be applied to any criminal issue confronting us: Use a weapon in a crime, gun, knife, baseball bat?

Life in prison. No parole.

We need to make the illegal use of weapons so expensive in terms of prison time to the offender that they'd never think of using a weapon illegally for any purpose.

Illegal drugs?

Anyone involved in the manufacture, importation or distribution of any illegal drug?

Life in prison. No parole.

200,000 deaths attributed to fentanyl over the past two years. The outrage that SHOULD be evident is strangely muted. Locking people up for life that have imported or manufactured the tools for those deaths should be job one.

Illegal aliens?

Immediate deportation. End the illegal alien destination resort we've built here that brings them here by the millions. If they want to appeal deportation, they may, from outside the US.

Any illegal is automatically banned from legal residence or citizenship, ever.

Illegals are to be denied ownership of property, businesses, and/or licenses.

Illegal alien criminals serve their sentences in prisons and then are immediately deported.

Proof of citizenship or legal status needs to be required to attend schools at any level, or to get medical assistance, save to make the patient stable and then deport them.

End the bastardization of the 14th Amendment which was never meant to confer automatic citizenship to illegal aliens of the children they deliberately come here to have.

We take expensive, time-consuming and by no means guaranteed efforts to stop DUI's. PSA's abound about drinking and driving... but we effectively say it's OK to drink, just don't drink too much.

I'm pretty sure that idea is small comfort to the dead and crippled that result from such a wink, wink; nod, nod concept.

As a nation, we either want to end these issues or, at least, dramatically curtail them or we don't.

We keep doing the same things, over and over, achieving the same dismal results.

It's long since passed time to do something that will work. Doing the same things, over and over, while expecting a different outcome is insane.

How much longer do we put up with it?

When is enough, enough?