Quote # 4

Quote # 4: “People say that drunk driving is a mistake. Its not a mistake. It’s a deliberate choice. You choose to get behind a wheel of a car after drinking. Its no wonder people are so carefree about drunk driving if it is so justified as a mistake.” From: “Drunk Driving: A License To Kill” By: Marc Acushnet

Response:

This quote is not one that I used directly in my paper but it is something that influenced me. These sentences were the intro to Acushnet’s article and they had a very resonating affect on me for my paper. This quote is something that I found very interesting because of the truth that lay behind it. I had never thought of drunk driving as something that was not a mistake. Although Acushnet’s statement is correct, meaning that I agree with it, I think that it makes a very strong point. When something is justified as a simple mistake, people feel no remorse about doing the same thing again. Unfortunately when it is something as deadly and stupid as drunk driving, people justify their actions by writing it off as a mistake. This not only bothers the crap out of me but it proves another point, if some people are not smart enough to know when they should not be drinking after driving, they shouldn’t be drinking or driving. A mistake is something that can be corrected or forgiven, whereas the choice to get behind the wheel of a car intoxicated and inadvertently taking someone’s life can never be corrected. The choice to drive drunk is one that can have everlasting effects and should never be written off as a mistake, while it doesn’t always result in tragedy, it is a choice that can play a large negative roll in the rest of your life. The choice is not to drink, or to drive; it is to simply do one or the other.