Victim feels new laws won't change things
Editor,
I am writing in response to the woman that wrote her view on the open container law. This was in the the Oct. 6 Letters to the Editor.
I do not agree with your article. I was a victim on June 9, 2000, of a drunk driver who stole my vehicle. After a long "chase" by local law enforcement, I was thrown or jumped from the attached horse trailer. I don't know because I don't remember anything due to a fractured skull resulting in a traumatic brain injury. I obtained numerous other injuries, life-changing injuries, unseen injuries. I have a brain injury that I will have until the day I die.
The person who stole my pickup and attached horse trailer was under age, and very intoxicated. I am told he had been drinking at a local bar for most of the evening before he tried walking home and stole my vehicle. He was a habitual offender, being picked up on numerous occasions for crime. Would the open container law have stopped him? No, it would not. The fact he was not 21 did not stop him from entering a local bar and drinking.
Did the prohibition law that outlawed alcohol in the early 1920s stop people from bootlegging alcohol? No, it did not. Is the open container law going to stop people from littering because they don't want to get caught with an open beer can in their car? No, our beautiful state is going to have more litter along the roads. Laws are made for law abiding citizens; laws are made and are broken every day, every hour.
The person I was died June 9, 2000. The person I am today is someone I don't recognize when I look in the mirror. Due to another person's actions I am not the person I was nor will I ever be that person again. I was given a life sentence; he got one year in a pre-release establishment for individuals who break the law.
He has been in prison two times since and is now out. Did the laws prevent this from happening? No and this new open container law will not prevent drunk drivers from taking lives of innocent people. People have been drinking and driving since the first car was made. They will continue to do so, laws or not.
I don't have the answers, but I do know that the "rights" of Americans today are in jeopardy. I do not agree with drinking and driving. I don't agree with smoking but I disagree with the law that says you can't. I don't agree with a lot of things that people do; we as individuals have to take responsibility for our actions.
We cannot depend on laws nor can we blame someone else. My life was changed dramatically by a man drinking alcohol, but that does not mean I think everyone should not drink. Before you do drink and drive, think about how your having just one drink could change the life of another. Do I believe in drugs? Not illegal ones, but there are drugs that save lives.
Do I hold grudge? No, I don't. I feel sorry for the guy, but the laws he broke will not change my brain injury; it won't change what happened early in the morning on June 9, 2000. The laws this man broke will be broken again. That's a fact. Making more will not change what happened and it won't prevent drunk drivers.
Marilyn Mitzi Stonehocker,
Thompson Falls