There was a time, I’m sure, when society was occasionally outraged when people were killed by a drunken driver.
A time, many decades ago, when there was no proven scientific and affordable way in which to prove that someone was driving under the influence.
No convenient manner in which to measure the level of intoxicants in someone’s blood.
A time when it was never considered that one day every police officer would have the ability to conduct Intoxilyzer tests at a moment’s notice.
A time when no one could fathom that a drunken driver could be convicted of manslaughter and serve 10 years in prison for causing a fatal accident.
The world was not as mobile then.
But the world continued to mobilize. There were more and more cars on the road as the decades passed, and the number of innocent people being killed or maimed on the back roads and highways of this country skyrocketed out of control.
Officials raised red flags and held press conferences and told horrifying tales of grief and loss and stunned our general populace with staggering and sobering statistics.
Society’s outrage grew and so did the media’s.
Eventually, albeit slowly, the general populace caught on.
State by state, laws were enacted making drunken driving a more serious crime. Punishments were increased. Mandatory jail sentences passed. Driver’s licenses were taken away for months or years at a time.
A drunken driving charge became a bold-faced black mark on a person’s reputation.
Drunken driving is still a serious problem in our society, of course. No series of laws and punishments will end it completely.
But it’s different now.
There is a generation of twentysomethings who are a heck of a lot more likely to have a designated driver or take a cab home after a night out than they were just a decade ago.
Those laws did not get passed easily.
Many were passed with bad language. They were put on the books, taken off the books and reworded countless times in legislative halls throughout the country.
There were court convictions and appeals, and certainly some guilty parties went free as society worked its way through the legal process that today has left most states with pretty solid OUI or DUI laws on the books.
At one time, it seemed too complicated, too radical, too costly, perhaps too punitive to actually throw someone in jail for a simple lapse of judgment.
Mr. Jones certainly didn’t intend to kill Mary Smith. He simply had too many drinks at the bar and didn’t see the stop sign at the intersection.
He feels terrible. His own guilt is perhaps enough punishment.
Maybe Mr. Jones was once a straight Ivy League student. Now, he’s an upstanding member of the community with children.
Certainly he shouldn’t go to prison.
He didn’t want Mary Smith to die.
Cyberbullying is this generation of lawmakers’ drunken driving challenge.
It’s no longer acceptable to say, “They are just kids.”
It’s no longer acceptable to say, “They didn’t intend to.”
Computers are precise and reliable forensic tools. The knowledge to extract the evidence from them is already in place.
Cyberbullies need to be held accountable.
Seriously accountable.
Not based on emotionally charged cases, but on strong, articulate and wise legislation.
There will be missteps along the way.
Many lost cases.
Lots of trial and error.
There generally are when there is something important to be done.
Now is the time.
E-mail Renee at reneeordway@gmail.com and listen to her and co-host Dan Frazell from 7 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday on the radio at 103.1 The Pulse.