Tolerant or intolerant of homicide

[searchingforlight]

I just read about the gunman in California killing three and injuring six. It made the national news and will probably be reported on for days as the sensation addicted media pick apart each thing that led to this moment as are other killings like that.

This week on a highway in our State a college student was driving drunk with 7 other people in the car. The crash killed a young female passenger and injured several others. He is charged with a vehicular homicide but people most people will not even know about it and the decision to drive drunk is winked at in this country. Sum people will first focus on the tragedy of the beautiful, young woman, her parents, her story. They will move on to pitting the driver. "One bad mistake" "Shame to change his life forever"

What is the real difference between random death by gun and death by drunken driving? We know drivers who drive drunk. We may have done it ourselves. As parents we may suspect that our children are doing it and are relieved that they made it home to their beds. As children we may have parents who are a menace on the road but don't report them because we can't imagine the shame to the family or the burden of having them lose their license. BUT at least we're not like them. We would never make a decision to take an instrument of death to a place where we could kill innocent, unsuspecting people.

I wonder.

[Kalidurga]

1. I think it is tragic that we wink at drinking and driving...

there is no need to drink and drive. Even if you are an alcoholic, you can be at least responsible enough to not go out on the road, stay in your car, at a friends, in a hotel or whatever or maybe even take a cab home. In any case I can't feel sorry for people who only lose their license from drinking and driving especially when they have killed someone. It is really horrible to feel so sorry for the person that made a fatal mistake to the point that we forget about the lives they have ruined.