The senseless loss of cyclist Jeff Dusenbury should motivate the community to take dramatic action regarding how residents of Alaska are licensed to drive, especially first-time drivers.
When I was 16, the state of Alaska issued me a license to drive without requiring any formal hands-on drivers training or education.
When I was 17, I almost ended my own life and my passenger's, in a high-speed pass on a narrow highway after drinking and driving for the first time during a high school prom. Today, 40 years later, formal drivers' education and training is still not required in Alaska for any drivers.
Some people feel that it is not the responsibility of the state to be a parent, yet according to the Office of Children's Services, 2,524 children were placed in out of home care as of May. Young people under OCS oversight would be a good group of people for the state to begin mandatory drivers' training, including intensive alcohol awareness, and this should be expanded to all first-time drivers between the ages of 16 and 18. They should also pass a refresher course every six months and have a mandatory electronic override on their cars provided by the DMV. That would be better than electronic monitoring ordered by the court. No one under the age of 16 belongs behind the wheel of an automobile.
People are distraught and desperate over DUI offenses and deaths. Things need to change, and a proactive approach, beginning in middle school, is the only way to facilitate this. Reactive solutions such as long prison terms, only cause further prison overcrowding, and deaths, and only address the symptoms of the problem, not the root causes during a time of fiscal crisis.
This is the information age, and dramatic developments in sophisticated electronic virtual reality technology could easily simulate the effects of alcohol or marijuana in realistic driving simulation to help important lessons take hold.
Jenny Burke is right that justice must be done, (ADN Monday, "Price should be paid for bad behavior"). But what is justice? Ancient Rome crucified shoplifters. Bulgaria executes drunk drivers after the second offense. First offenders in El Salvador face a firing squad.
Most of us who have lost control of alcohol intake do not have criminal intent, but that is often the result. Most recently, this involved a state Senate press secretary in Anchorage. In past years here in Alaska, alcohol-related tragedies have included ship captains and airline pilots. Nationally, two commanders of nuclear weapons have been dismissed for alcohol-restraint issues. It's becoming a more stressful world by the hour.
Laws also have yet to adequately address new dangerous designer drugs such as Zolpidem, a generic form of the sleep-aid Ambien that consistently causes sleep-driving, a drug-induced, altered state of consciousness. A driver in Oregon, Mandylee Kenney, age 29, was involved in an an Ambien-related crash in February 2012. Another driver, Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and niece of John F. Kennedy, two men who saved America from nuclear destruction, was also involved in an Ambien-related crash in July 2013.
For a civilized society, justice should be tempered by mercy. This doesn't include demoralizing and dehumanizing people to the point of hopelessness, despair and suicide, funded by the community. Enough people have died. The Church represents mercy. The state represents justice. This is the two-edged sword of Christ. This is true justice.
Harold Bartko is a 53-year resident of Alaska and former abuser of alcohol.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.