| Bob Watson writes: Last week’s letter to the editor by Mr. Leeper started me to thinking. Where did where did he obtain his information that dry counties had more DWI’s that wet counties? I spent several hours searching the web for this information and was not able to find it. I did find several interesting web sites that I would urge you to research. www.txdot.gov/driver/sober-safe/faces.html, www.txdps.state.tx.us/DriverLicense/AlcoholRelatedOffenses.htm, www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/division/traffic/safety/sober-safe/intoxication.html, and www.txdps.state.tx.us/index.htm. I served 40+ years in Law Enforcement (city & counties both wet and dry), Juvenile Probation Officer, County Judge of Collingsworth County and 6 months as Municipal Judge of Clarendon before Leukemia forced me to retire. Based on my experience I would ask Donley County citizens please vote NO in the upcoming election to serve alcohol. Being arrested for public intoxication (just being drunk) is no big deal, right? It can be a humiliating and traumatic experience. The police often arrest first and ask questions later, minimum time in jail 4 hours. This will end up with you having an alcohol related offense on your record for the rest of your life that could affect future jobs, school admissions, and even the ability to rent an apartment. DWI What’s the big deal about driving after you’ve had a few drinks, anyway? Just in case you missed all the commercials, public safety announcements, and were never taught this is in school, here is a brief refresher. Sobering 2012 Texas Statistics from http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/safety/faces/fodd-fact-sheet.pdf • 25,755 alcohol-related crashes • 9,458 people seriously injured in an alcohol-related crash • 1,170 people killed in an alcohol-related crash Source: TxDOT and Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Reports (CR-3) Drinking alcohol affects your judgment, reflexes, depth perception, and other cognitive functions that are necessary to drive safely. People that drink and drive are far more likely to get in a serious auto accident than sober drivers. Whenever you drink, alcohol is absorbed into your bloodstream through the lining of your stomach and small intestine. The alcohol in your bloodstream directly affects your brain, with the amount of impairment increasing as the level of alcohol in your blood increases. By the time you reach Texas’ legal limit of .08, your muscle control is poor, your judgment is impaired, and your ability to detect danger is reduced significantly. In other words, you are in no condition to drive! How do you know when you’ve had too much? Well, everyone’s tolerance for alcohol is different, and your BAC can be affected by factors like weight, gender, and how much you’ve had to eat. The general rule is to consume no more than 1 drink per hour, with one drink being 12 oz of beer, 5 oz of wine, or 1 single shot of liquor. However, this is not foolproof, due the factors mentioned above and also to the fact that if you have a low tolerance for alcohol you could become impaired at a BAC below the legal limit of .08. So, the best defense against a DWI is not to drink and drive at all. Of course, if you drink and drive and the only thing that happens is that you get charged with a DWI, you are actually lucky. It could be much worse. For example, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, someone dies in an alcohol-related accident once every 5 hours! In 2004, 1,642 people died in drunk-driving accidents. Latest information from: http://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/division/traffic/safety/sober-safe/intoxication.html states: About every 20 minutes in Texas, someone is hurt or killed in a crash involving alcohol. We urge you to take responsibility for your actions. Don’t drink and drive. Sure, it’s easy to distance yourself from the statistics, but consider this: each one of those 1,642 people had family and friends that they left behind. The tragic thing is that these deaths were entirely preventable-if the drunk driver had called a cab or gotten a ride with someone else instead, those people might still be alive today. | Don Stone writes: Two amendments guarantee we are FREE TO SPEAK…FREE TO VOTE! These give the right of the people to be heard. What majority is heard at the ballot box. Not always the true majority; only those who vote. We speak of the “silent majority” (but their votes don’t count.) Many elections are decided by one vote. Or two or seven. Maybe yours. Intentions, convictions don’t count at the polls without votes. Voting counts. Your vote counts--if you vote! So, vote your convictions. Let your voice be heard. Vote early or late, but VOTE NO TO THE ALCOHOLIC SALES OPTION! | Mary Linn Bills writes: This is a true story. No names have been changed, and it is too late to protect the innocent in this story but not the innocent of Donley County. The person who told this story in 1999 is Michael Dorris. His brave son is named Adam. Adam’s adoptive mother is Louise. “I drank hard in my twenties and eventually got hepatitis,” she related. “I was lucky. Beyond an occasional glass of wine, I can’t tolerate liquor anymore. But from those early days, I understand the urge for alcohol, its physical pull. I had formed an emotional bond with a special configuration of chemicals, and I realize to this day the attraction of the relationship and the difficulty of abandoning it. “Adam’s mother never did let go. She died of alcohol poisoning, and I’d feel sorrier for her if we didn’t have Adam.” By way of background, “the US surgeon general and the American Medical Association recently stated that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption for a woman during pregnancy – a fact unknown in 1971 when Michael Dorris became one of the first unmarried men in the United States to legally adopt a very young child.” The following decades were a time of alarming discovery about the blight of fetal alcohol syndrome. Grandparents and parents of children who are victims of this syndrome may see evidence in adopted grandchildren and children. Teachers see it in their students. These innocents often show physical signs (including seizures), behavioral, mental, and emotional impairment caused by the consumption of alcohol by their mothers during pregnancy. In Adam’s case, his developmental blocks included all the above. He had superior care and training to overcome these deficiencies, but they could not make up for the damage done before he was even born. His IQ was low, and his social development was functional only with care and supervision. Each and every day of his life was a struggle against the staggering effects of fetal alcohol syndrome. You may only imagine how Michael felt on Adam’s 21st birthday when he said, “So Adam, do you feel any older? What’s good about being 21?” “He turned to me and grinned,” commented Michael. “I thought, ‘Then there was something good.’” “Well,” Adam answered, “now the guys at work say I’m old enough to drink.” To learn more about this tragic, preventable problem, look online, or check out The Broken Cord by Michael Dorris from your local library. Oh, yes. I nearly forgot. Please protect our unborn children by voting “no” in the upcoming election. |
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