Good For Phil

I'm NOT a fan of Phil Gramm, but I gotta give him his due on this one:

Gramm joins MADD official in urging use of designated drivers
By J.R. GONZALES
Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle


Thanks to Enron Field, the intersection of Chartres Street and Texas Avenue looks a little different today than it did Dec. 22, 1996.

But for Rebecca Hall, the way the intersection looked that day will always be frozen in time. That was the day a car carrying her 21-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Waller, struck a concrete pillar supporting U.S. 59, killing Waller.

Hall believes alcohol played a part in her daughter's death.

Now a Mothers Against Drunk Driving spokeswoman, Hall, along with U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm and other elected officials, urged Sunday that people who are drinking alcohol always use a designated driver, especially during the holidays.

"I would say, in my own case, that if I had one beer, I would never, ever think of driving an automobile, and I think that's a mindset that we need to get everybody in," Gramm said at the Harris County Precinct 4 Courtroom Annex, 6831 Cypresswood Drive.

In 1998, Gramm and fellow Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison voted to amend a highway funding bill that required states to lower their drunken-driving thresholds to a blood-alcohol content of .08 percent or lose federal highway funds. State lawmakers adopted the standard in 1999.

"The thing I would recommend is that we're not scientists in terms of being able to measure the impact alcohol has on us and our reflexes and our ability to do things," Gramm said. "And the safest thing is that if you're going to have anything to drink, don't drive."

At the time, local prosecutors argued that lowering the legal intoxication level would make it harder to get convictions in contested driving-while-intoxicated cases.

Gramm said that is not a problem because attitudes toward DWI offenders have become more harsh than in years past.

From Sept. 1, 1999, the day the law took effect, through May 2000, the arrests of drunken drivers increased by 14 percent, according to figures from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Hall said people need to make a conscious effort when it comes to educating children about the dangers of drinking and driving.

"How many times have we gone to convenience stores and seen them brown-bag not a Coke but a beer?" Hall said. "These things need to change; we need to become more aware of what we're doing and the examples that we're giving to our children."

Hall said she'll probably leave some roses this week at that downtown intersection where her daughter's fatal accident occurred.

"I'm making plans," she said. "You have to plan ahead when you lose someone."

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The way to use life is to do nothing through acting,
The way to use life is to do everything through being. - Lao-Tzu

 

Actually, Clutch, just reading the paper for once!!! LOL!

What's funny is I didn't even know it was my 4000th. Well, good for Phil anyway!



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The way to use life is to do nothing through acting,
The way to use life is to do everything through being. - Lao-Tzu