> we should teach why things are important. What are these "things" you speak of? Here's what I know is important: not drinking and driving. How did I come to

> we should teach why things are important. What are these "things" you speak of? Here's what I know is important: not drinking and driving. How did I come to believe that was important? Maybe because it takes almost zero effort to discover that over 10,000 people die every year because the people who stole their lives justified drinking and driving. There is zero justification. ZERO. If you're under the influence, you don't get to be the person who drives your wife to the hospital in an emergency. You don't get to escape tornados. You don't get to move cars in your driveway. If you want to have the freedom to do those things at any moment, don't drink alcohol. Frankly, that last "maybe" of yours has me seething. It's not exactly fair to you, because I have to assume you've not lost someone in that way. But I have, and many other have as well, and you expressed an interest in learning important things, so let's learn from this story: When I was a teen, my best friend was killed by his dad moving a car out of their garage. It was a Saturday afternoon, and his dad and his dad's buddies, had been working on a car in the garage, and drinking beers. After finishing work on the car, they decided to begin work on another car. To do so, they needed to back the first car out of the garage, then pull the other one in. Something that sounds very similar to "moving your own car within your own driveway." The problem is, my friend's dad neglected to look in his mirrors or over his shoulder as he went to move the car. He backed it up, then hit something. Because he had been drinking though, his reaction times weren't great. Rather than stopping when hitting something, he continued to roll another fifteen feet down the driveway, which is when he discovered that he'd hit, then flattened and smeared my friend, his son, down the driveway before he even noticed. It was a closed casket funeral, and the dad wasn't allowed to attend. He was in jail, awaiting a trial. It wasn't a slam dunk case though. He had a blood alcohol level of 0.075, under the legal limit for his state. The jury decided that the influence of the alcohol, though under the legal limit, was enough that it impaired his ability to operate a vehicle, and found him guilty, after which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. My friend's dad decided that because it was his car in his driveway, drinking and driving was justified. It wasn't. He lost his son and his freedom. I watched someone who I'd known since I was an infant, someone who was closer to me than my own brothers, get run over and destroyed as I stood there, yelling for his dad to stop. There's zero justification for drinking and driving.