Tuesday 11/10/20
I saw this morning that Tony La Russa was charged with a DUI the day before the White Sox hired him, for an incident in February. La Russa has an issue with drinking, clearly, and certainly with drinking and driving. Drinking and operating a vehicle borders on the unforgivable to me. I was reading a story the other day about a thirty-four-year-old nurse, who stopped on the side of the road to help someone in need. As she was doing this, a driver who was under the influence hit and killed her, leaving a child who had recently lost his father as well. I think the policy should be that if you are charged once and then arrested for the offense again, you lose your license for good. No gray area. No more chances.
I understand the issue that alcohol can be for people, and pain, and trying to deal with pain, and genetic predisposition. Disease and illness. Certainly we all have things we struggle with and I have things that knock me back as much (often more) as anyone. But you can't be putting other people's lives in danger with what easily becomes a killing machine. I read these stories about these innocent people going about their lives, with people who love them and depend on them, and then they're just gone, taken out.
My youngest sister and I are eight years apart. My other sister, who died in 2014, was five years younger than I am. When my dad died, I took on a kind of different role. I became somewhat of a father figure, but of course no replacement. I tried to use a guiding hand of knowledge. To perhaps weigh in on things that I wouldn't have in the past. The first time my youngest sister did what everyone does at a certain age, and drink, and get sick, and all of that, I wrote her a note. I tried to keep the note light. Light-ish. Not to be a scold. I think I made some joke about how curiosity may not have killed the cat, but I bet the cat's hangover made it feel like that was going to. But I did add a very serious line about never mixing alcohol with driving. That was all I really wanted her to take away.
It sends an awful message keeping La Russa on as manager of the White Sox. The hire was obviously about cronyism to begin with, but I wish drinking and driving was a larger focus of people's so-called social justice concerns. Every day it seems like there is a story in the local news about a life snuffed out by a person under the influence.
