Warnings about bad things: unchecked alcoholism leads to tragedy, eventually.
Quotes of the month:
“He had been warned of the dangers of drinking and driving by a court, by friends and by family.”
So wrote a reporter on the conviction of Andrew Gallo, 23, in the death of the Los Angeles Angels’ promising young rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart, 22, in a crash that also killed two others. The trouble is, once an addict gets high he thinks he’s invincible. Countless addicts have told themselves they’d never (again) drink and drive, only to (yet again) get behind the wheel while under the influence. Gallo, like so many before him, didn’t plan on driving, but after a night of heavy drinking, like so many other alcoholics, he did. He even had a designated driver, who ended up as a passenger in his car and survived. The trouble is Gallo was given the wrong warning. He should have been told he could never again safely drink (he already had a DUI on his record) and should have been proscribed from doing so via every legal and technological means at our disposal. I wrote in the May 2009 TAR, “As pointed out in Drunks, Drugs & Debits, alcoholics are incapable of self-diagnosis, cannot be ‘educated’ to abstain and need to have logical consequences imposed, just like children. Had Gallo been forced into abstinence with the technology of alcohol testing devices, which should be considered for everyone who has been found guilty of DUI, this tragedy would have been far less likely.” His friends and family, with the full support and enforcement of the legal system, should have given him the only warning that can be safely given to those afflicted with the disease of alcoholism: “When you drink, you think you are invincible. One potentially lethal manifestation is when you drink and a car is available and there is a reason for you to drive, you won’t hesitate to get behind the wheel. Therefore, you can’t ever drink again.” If the system worked to prevent the use by those who have proven they cannot safely use, Nick Adenhart would probably be alive today and Andrew Gallo would not have been convicted of murder.
“Alcohol is a very bad thing. It can take the most wonderful person and turn them into the devil.”
So said 29-year-old David Henry Wysocki, apologizing to his wife and pledging never to drink again after U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich slammed him for having repeatedly punched his then- 8 ½ month pregnant wife in the stomach and bitten her arm several times mid-flight in front her children, ages 9 and 14, and a plane full of witnesses. The Judge sentenced Wysocki to six months in federal prison and probation with anger management classes. He’s undergone treatment for his alcoholism, which studies cited in Drunks, Drugs & Debits show is all that’s needed for anger to dissipate. It sounds like he’s on track so he won’t continue to act like Charlie, above.
Future watch:
Those who might earn recognition in a future edition of TAR that have recently made news include Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay (known for his quick temper, scathing outbursts and heavy use of expletives, recently reported to have been hit with a $2 million back tax bill and behind in paying a number of suppliers).