As a victim of a drunk driving accident that almost took my life in 1988, and having lived with a partial disability ever since, I totally appreciate Kory Gunnell’s excellent letter in Friday’s Herald (“We need to break free from alcohol”).
We take for granted that we cannot have any “fun” without mood-altering chemicals, whether they be legal (alcohol), or illegal street prescription drugs, meth, coke, heroin, pot, PCP, Oxycontin, nicotine, etc. The list seems to be endless (and expanding) these days.
About an acre of every grocery store is devoted to alcoholic beverages colorfully displayed and boxed and bottled and wrapped to make this all look like some kind of “normal” behavior and activity. TV tells us we will be more “manly” if we drink the right tequilla, and ads for booze and drugs almost dominate TV commercials.
Are we just too dumb, or lazy, or ignorant, or cowardly, to face life, and each other, socially without a prop or chemical? Isn’t that really the root of this whole problem and the root of the constant slaughter on our highways? Is society as a whole just another huge collective “addict”?
Robert F. Van den Akker
Monroe
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