What will it take to get drunk drivers off the road?
In this day and age when there have been 101+ infomercials about the dangers of impaired driving, texting while driving and so many news stories about people who've been killed, arrested, convicted and sent to prison as a result of DUI or texting while driving, I was really surprised to see a woman one evening last week giving such attitude to the police as she was escorted into the paddy wagon after being arrested for DUI.
I can only assume that such people are either just plain stupid or they place so little value on human life that they just don't care if they kill another human being or themselves or even end up in the hospital with burns all over their bodies, faces horribly disfigured and limbs amputated if they can even feel anything below the waist or neck.
What does it take to get it through to such people because educating them, 24-hour roadside suspensions, the risk of being arrested and imprisoned with a lifetime ban on driving and a criminal record just doesn't seem to work.
When I was a teenager I volunteered with children who were burn survivors, many of whom were casualties of impaired drivers. I've known people who lost their moms and dads to impaired drivers and I've even lost people that I care about to drivers who were drunk or stoned behind the wheel.
My Grade 11 high school class even paid a visit to see an autopsy being performed on the body of a teenager who died as a passenger of an impaired driver and it was stomach turning to say the least.
So I know this shit is real and all the doctors, police officers, lawyers, jail guards, survivors and children and adults who are confined to wheelchairs and who's faces are grotesquely destroyed forever are not making all this up to stir some guilty feelings in those idiots who drive under the influence.
So, please tell me and everyone else, what will it take to get the message through to all of you?
–Leslie Benisz
More love for small town life
Re: Back to the Land 2.0, Jan. 29, 2015
My wife and I moved with our boys to Nelson a few years ago after 15 years in Vancouver. Both of us work in tech. She's based out of Tel Aviv and I freelance for companies all over. What struck us was how many other people here are doing the same thing.
I think as remote work culture evolves, you'll see a lot more people starting to do it, and small towns being retrofitted to offer the kinds of services and quality of life people expect in larger urban centres.
Nelson feels a lot like East Van, but with a much more outdoorsy/back-to-the-land edge. After growing up in a smaller city and moving to Vancouver in the '90s, I would never in a million years have imagined opting for small town life, but we love it.
–Sugarlarry
