by Zach Bigalke

Created on: July 23, 2007

"Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness."
- Seneca, first-century Roman philosopher

Too often alcohol causes otherwise intelligent people to make incredibly unintelligent decisions. It could be the lapse in judgment that causes one to wake up next to somebody whose name cannot be recalled. It could be as simple as pissing all over the floor of the bathroom because one chose the wrong one of the four toilets in his vision. Or, more tragically, it can be an inappropriate emboldener which sets an irreversible chain of events into motion.

It is nothing to turn on your television set and see evidence of yet another car accident involving intoxicated drivers...until it happens to be someone you know and care about behind the wheel. Some people never face such unnecessary tragedy in their lives, and they are both luckier and, somehow, weaker for their lack of the experience. The sweet temptation of beer and wine and the harder liquors is that it causes one to drop inhibitions, to live freely and wildly. But the opposite side of the coin shows that it also impairs judgment and reaction time and logical reasoning.

Just before three in the morning Friday, an incident occurred in Portland that set such an irreversible series of horrific events into action. Driving toward Lake Oswego down Southwest Boones Ferry Road, a vehicle overcooked a turn and struck two trees. The person in the passenger seat, showing poor judgment in his choice of chauffeur, no longer has the option to make decisions good or bad. The driver, released from his hospital bed only to find the rude awakening of a jail cell, now faces a future where the state makes his decisions for him.

I went to school with both these kids. They were driving in a place where I had driven many times before; just down the hill from Lewis and Clark College, they were most likely returning home from another evening at the local dispensary of hard libations. The driver, already inclined toward fast driving and reckless living, was doing the same thing he had done countless times before. So was the passenger - the two were best of friends for whom such behaviors were not foreign. As noted travel writer Eleanor Early once quipped, "Alcohol removes inhibitions - like that scared little mouse who got drunk and shook his whiskers and shouted: Now bring on that damn cat!'"

Now one has a date with the grave, and the other has a date with the judge. Andrew, the driver, was my next-door neighbor during the second semester of my only

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