About two months ago I got a telephone call from “Mothers Against Drunk Drivers” (MADD) soliciting help / support for their works. The lady I spoke to gave me some shocking statistics. After we ended the conversation, I verified some of the data she pointed out concerning the problem with “Drunk Drivers” and deaths on our highways, etc.

I wrote an essay the same day on the subject of “Drunk Drivers” and I put it aside. The other day I started to see and hear advertisement on a new music album with the poplar country/western singer/musician Toby Keith. The name of the album was “White Trash With Money.” One of the songs being “pushed” was an old rehashed song (I think) entitled “Get Drunk and Be Somebody.” According to the review of this new Toby Keith album, “it’s very good” (11 April 2006). Can you believe this? Get drunk and be somebody! Talk about “trash,” surely what Toby Keith is portraying is pure trash. Many impressionable people will be influenced in a negative manner by such type of “trash.” “GET DRUNK AND BE SOMEBODY”—Toby you should be ashamed.

With the above in mind coupled with some other thoughts I now submit the below essay for your consideration.

“According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2004, 16,694 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes—an average of one almost every half-hour. These deaths constituted approximately 39 percent of the 42,636 total traffic fatalities.” (See MADD for additional statistics)

Does it not seem strange to you that this is not the lead story in our newspapers and on TV news each night? Of course I am using sarcasm here. I know we wink at such events as a drunk driver killing innocent people. This is not news worthy, it is too common place. Oh, the “sacred cow” alcohol and “getting drunk.” . . .

Why not the righteous indignation over the 16,694 people killed by drunks in one year? Must we leave that fact alone? Alas, “the sacred cow!”

“Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.” (Proverbs 23:29-30)

—Donald R. Fox