It seems these days that we live in a society that believes
that nothing bad could ever happen to them. Children are being raised with no
regard to rules. People live off of poor judgment because consequences, and punishment
are no longer feared. People live their lives thinking that bad things only
happen to other people, and that nothing will come of their poor decisions. We
in EMS disagree. Day after day, month after month, year after year, we get
called to aid of people who chose to act with reckless disregard. Some live to
see another day, other lose life or limb over a moment of stupidity.
My biggest pet peeve
is drunk driving.
How many people have to be critically injured or killed
before people act with half of a brain? I know, common sense isn’t so common
anymore. Every drunken car wreck I respond to makes me less and less
sympathetic. Every day we hear of people killed or critically injured due to
the impairment of a driver who recklessly drinks to the point of no return. This
impaired Einstein then decides jumping behind the wheel of his vehicle for a
midnight stroll is his best option. He never once thinks about why such a
decision is a wrong one. Not once does he think about the fact that the car he
is about to drive head on into is carrying a family of 5, returning from
vacation at Disney world.
We had a call 3 weeks ago where two kids, a 19 year old and
a 17 year old decided drinking beer while driving was a good idea. At 90mph,
they lost control of their vehicle, slammed into a parked car, then slammed
into a large stone wall, which then sent their vehicle into the air, flipping
until it laid at rest on its side. The 19 year old was killed instantly, the 17
year old followed in his footsteps just a few moments later. Two families lost
their children that night, and why? Because not once did these kids fear the
consequences of drinking and driving. Children grow up with parents who are too
afraid to show their kids what reality looks like. They are too afraid to upset
them, and fear that they will be the cause of unwanted emotional distress, of
which will land their precious little wall flower in therapy for the rest of
their lives. What happened to tough love? Show them the images of wrecks. Make
them watch news report after news report about drunk drivers killing someone.
Show them the cars, show them the consequences. Show them the faces of the
victims before their fate was sealed. Without a dose of reality, they will
never believe that bad things can in fact happen. Because these two kids didn’t
fear the repercussions of driving while drunk, they lost their lives.
I think it is time to stand up and say enough is enough!
RU-Responders Unite
a long, long,long time ago when I was in high school we viewed a film(!) called Signal 30 from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. It was very graphic and sure put the point home. I'm amused today after over 35 years in Emergency Services (fire, ems) that we have come to a point where omg! it's to graphic to show children. Hello! these are the same kids(!) who are getting slaughtered on the highways everyday because as you have mentioned, they have no sense of reality. JMHO
ReplyDeleteI totally get where you are coming from. I wish people would stop trying to protect their kids from reality. All that comes of that is adults who have no clue what consequences are.
DeleteWe recently put on a program with one of the community charity groups down here. The program is called No Fear No Future. They took two cars that head been involved in an accident and mocked up a head on collision. We (the FD that I work for) were called in to extricate, along with local and state police and em's. We extricated the "victims" (who were students at the school) o e was airlifted to a local hospital one transported by ambulance. The driver of one of the cars was arrested and taken to parish lockup. One driver "died" on scene. The following day an assembly was put on where they showed the individual stories of each victim, including the driver who was found to be under the influence. One of the most powerful parts of the entire assembly was that they had a casket in front of the projector to remind everyone ha the choices we make usually don't affect only us. It is something I think more schools around the country would do the g's similar
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