I started to reply right after Hubs post about the disease, then stopped myself. I was in the 3rd day of quitting smoking cold turkey and thought better of my comments as I realized the hiprocracy of my comments dissing alcoholism as a disease or addiction as I struggled that very day with tobacco. Its been a week now and i am still torn. I believe there is an element of addiction, but don't know if I believe it is a disease. I do have compassion for those afflicted after having watched a friend suffer horribly with an extreme "addiction" but after several tries he made it thru to sobriety. My problem with BL's actions are just that - his actions. He didn't just get drubk and drive and weave acrossed the centerline and kill some one - he purposely chose to disregard many laws when he pulled out to pass several vehicles in a no passing zone. I know he was drunk, but to me that is not an excuse to just put the whole action under "drunken behavior". Someone who drinks heavy regularly can function much better than you or I at higher levels of BAC. I truely feel he disregarded the double yellow, which is what caused the resulting tradgedy. Alcohol was a factor, his disregard was the cause. I'm am sure he is a "Good Guy" - charitable and all. Like most I have several miles impaired driving under my belt and have learned a few things along the way. The one thing I never did or would do is ride two up while under the influence. so he disregarded the lady's life while on the bike before getting to the truck. And apparently he wasn't drunk enough to realize he didn't want to take a breath test the first time and actually fought off the police and hospital officials this time as they tried to draw blood. All said and done, I mourn another sensless biker tragedy (The scooter guy). I respect and defend the police for a thorough job. As for BL, I don't know, he's bonded out, probably wont face trial til the spring. He will probably get 12 years, serve 6 and be out before his 42nd birthday. He has time now til conviction to get his act together, get cleaned up. Get a good lawyer and plead guilty and ask for mercy from the court. I think it may be the best shot at getting through this with some sort of positive outcome in the future.
In the meantime, say a prayer and wish for strength for the family and friends of Gerry Morelock, a fisherman, two wheeler, musician, former child psychologist who quit because he couldn't handle seeing hurt children all the time, a nature lover and park ranger , by all accounts................ a "Good Guy"