Trafficking Stupid

Forget Drug Trafficking for a minute, forget Human Trafficking for a moment too. (Just for a minute, not permanently by any means.) In North America's Society today, we are literally "trafficking" stupid, pun very much intended. I bet 99.999999999999 % of you already know what I'm going to rant about, so let's get to it shall we?

I swear, if I have to stop so I don't get hit, or in fact get hit by some arrogant jerk driving and talking or texting on a cell phone... I'm going to do unspeakable things to you with your own cell phone..... Try me...

How many years have we been blitzed with the Anti-Drinking and Driving campaign??? As many years as I can remember any way, and I'm 29. (I can't find the same answer, it varies between a start date of 1983 & 1989 - either way, it's 20 years plus.) There's M.A.D.D, ICBC out of BC has counterattack ads. (There's a hand up as if to say stop, with a martini glass in the middle of it.) Have we learned anything? I'd say HELL NO. Now, before some fly off the handle, I realize a blanket statement like that isn't fair. Some people have learned something, and hopefully not the hard way...  But not everyone has learned...... Otherwise drunk driving wouldn't still be happening!!

Real Attractive Nick!
Quick kids! You too can look "cool"
Just add alcohol!

How dare I say such a thing? How many present day DUI cases are there out there? More than I'd like to think about.... Just take a look at how many celebs there are in the news being busted for DUI's.... Mel Gibson, Lindsay Lohan, Nikolai Khabibulin (Edmonton Oiler Goaltender), Heather Locklear, Mickey Rourke, Vince Neil (Motley Crue Lead Singer) Ty Pennington, Haley Joel Osment (6th Sense Kid),  Michelle Rodriguez, Kiefer Sutherland, Kurt Angle (WWE Wrestler) and Nick Nolte just to name a few. And these are the famous people doing it! I shutter to think of the numbers amongst us "common" folk! I drink once or twice a year, and every Christmas I still get nervous going through the Police Check Stops. It's obviously been proven that we still need them...

What's my point right? And other than driving, what does drunk driving and texting while driving have to do with one another? My point is, all these years later people still drink and drive despite the ads and laws telling them not to because it's stupid and dangerous. Now a days there are anti-cell phone/texting ads and laws fore warning people not to do it, but they still do. Why are they? Well, I'd like to say it's because they're stupid... (And that much is true in my mind. You drink and drive or talk/text while you're driving, you're straight up stupid.) But I think it's more along the lines of the "It won't happen to me" mind frame. Wrong... I bet that's what every single person who has had a drunk driving or texting while driving accident has thought.

I guess the point here is, it can happen to you and that we still haven't learned our first lesson... Making me wonder how many have to die before we start learning the second lesson. (1st lesson being not to drunk & drive and 2nd lesson, put your cell phone away while you're driving.) Murphy's Law, dumb luck, or whatever you want to call it, sees that an innocent person gets hurt or killed due to a texting or drunk driver.... Not the driver themselves.

I hate to bring this up almost 27 years after the fact, but a good example of the previous two or three paragraphs is Craig MacTavish (former NHL player and Coach). As gotten from Wikipedia, "MacTavish missed the 1984-85 season after being convicted of vehicular homicide, having struck and killed a young woman while he was driving under the influence of alcohol. MacTavish pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and driving under the influence of alcohol in an accident the night of January 25, 1984 in Peabody, Massachusetts. Kim Radley, 26, of West Newfield, Maine, died four days later of injuries sustained in the crash. MacTavish spent a year in jail as punishment for this offence. While incarcerated, he watched most of the games that were televised. After MacTavish was released from prison, the Bruins offered to let him out of his contract. MacTavish accepted." I'm sure there isn't a day that goes by that Mr MacTavish doesn't think and feel guilty about someone else paying the price for his stupid mistake.


I'm sure a few have seen or
heard of this pic....
Or maybe have even seen a sign
like this at your church!

If you're smart enough to not drink and drive, be smart enough not to text and drive. Oprah, again with the Oprah haha, has something called the No Phone Zone, meaning of course your car. I've watched Oprah mercilessly get celebs to sign the No Phone Zone petition and promote it on her show. I finally have just taken the pledge not to text or use my phone while driving, and was the 402,165 to take the pledge. (I use public transit, but I do have a driver's licence and do drive on occasion.) It's worth taking a look at, or even signing. Visit http://www.oprah.com/ or www.oprah.com/questionaire/ipledge.html?id=6

(I just watched an episode of 1000 Ways to Die last night... I guess the show is about real deaths that have actually taken place in real "life". Granted it was an old episode but it demonstrates my point. I guess a guy was text fighting with his girlfriend while he was driving. She was text fighting back while she walked. He wound up hitting her with his suped up truck and she died. See, what can I say?)

It's not always about me; I don't drink & drive, I don't text & drive, and if you do.... It's my right to call you stupid, so deal with it!