If you ask me what one thing bothers me most about our state, I would have to say it’s the fact that we always seem to find a way to be at the top of lists that are “bad” and at the bottom of lists that are “good”.
The number of these lists has grown quite large of late and I don’t have enough time to put them all here; but one that really got my attention tonight while doing research online was this one.
Columbia, SC ranked as one of the top 13 in the nation for – drunkest town. That’s a grade of “F”.
(Feel free to insert your lobbyists-politicians are back in town joke here).
Sadly, it’s not that funny.
I guess it hits closer to home seeing as our state’s capital received an F and our state as a whole received a D. Forutnately, we’ve been taking (baby) steps to move our state forward and address this tragic problem.
Last year my friends Representative Ted Pitts and Senator Joel Lourie worked for passage of the Prevention of Underage Drinkage and Access to Alcohol Act (S.123). This is a great step and I’m hopeful this is the beginning of other legislation we can pass that can truly save lives – young and old.
Statistics show that weekly there is a mother, a father, a son, or a daughter that tragically loses a life on our roads. We’ve got to do better as elected officials to stop this. Particularily when law enforcement says our current DUI laws are virtually useless.
If you truly want to make a difference as a voter in our state, please contact your Senator so that this bill can get out of the Senate and on the way to the Governor’s desk.
We only have a few months left before all current legislation “dies”. Let’s hope (H.3496) doesn’t meet that fate or else the body count on our roads will continue to rise.