Why do we do stupid?

The video of the kid attempting to slide down a step rail on his skateboard; Idiots drinking, then getting behind the wheel of a car; A parent who believes it is okay to take the children along on a shoplifting adventure…the list of stupid goes on and on.

Last week Wayne County Republican Chairman Dan Olson was arrested for Felony DWI. The next morning he phoned my wife, who is the secretary of the County Republican Party, to inform her he was going to resign his post. The last embarrassing drunk driving incident was simply not enough for an alcoholic, it rarely is. “Can you believe they gave me my license back,” (after his last arrest) was his comment. If Dan wanted any sympathy from Wife Patti, he got quite the opposite. He did not, to his favor, ask to have the story and photo left out of the paper.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Dan and there was no question he had leadership skills and did an excellent job for the local Republican machine.

I don’t care if they classify alcoholism as a disease, condition, or personality fault. If Dan Olson, or any other alcohol soaking idiot wants to drink, that is their business. When they get behind the wheel of a vehicle and become a roadway weapon, it becomes everybody’s concern.

Hardly a week passes by that I don’t get a call from someone arrested for doing stupid, then asking me for mercy by not publishing their arrest and mug shot.

This past week I even had someone who professed they were on the study pathway to become a drug and alcohol counselor.

Problem was, they just chalked up a Felony DWI, with a blood alcohol level almost three times the legal limit.

Then, there are people like Rhonda Lawton. Police and this newspaper have been following her law-breaking escapades for over 20 years. Drugs, and bringing some fatherless kids into the world, seem to be the only desire of this once pretty woman, who now looks 15-20 years more than her actual age.

Next week Rhonda will chalk up yet another arrest. This time she was watching her young child, while allegedly hopped up on drugs. Rhonda has a peppered past of shoplifting, thefts from family and friends. Gee, I wonder how the kids will turn out. Courts take note, if convicted of her pending several arrests, give society a break and throw her ass in jail for an extended time. Require heavy counselling and thank the stars she is getting too old to produce more offspring.

Rhonda, like many other drug fueled, non-contributing segments of society are a drag on the system. No more welfare, no more third, fourth chances for the Rhondas residing in Wayne County. Shape up, or ship out to the nearest cell.

Yeah, I know, the liberals are all screaming for my head. We have a societal conscience that pushes us to mold that segment of the un-moldable into productive members of our society. There comes a point where you can throw all the good will and money at a problem and come up with nothing more than lost time. Truth is, some people cannot and will not change their stripes. Sometimes locking them up for extended periods of time is not a punishment, rather a break for the rest of us.
I am amazed at how so many of the same people, same family names appear in the Law & Order pages of this newspaper, week after week, year after year.

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