To the folks of Long Island- something’s gotta be done about drunk driving, don’t ya think? I mean, Newsday is the most tragic newspaper I’ve ever seen. There have been four teenage/early 20’s deaths in the past few days. (The links to their stories are posted below.) From May 27th to June 9th, 149 people in Nassau county were arrested for DWI’s. Newsday has posted all 149 of their mugshots in an effort to cause a sort of shame to deter future violations. I don’t think it’s working.

 

The newest story is about Natalie Ciappa.. Her father found her drunk on somebody’s couch the morning after partying. We don’t know what happened to her yet. The boy who lived there apparantly got really nervous when the father/cops showed up. Instead of helping her, he cleaned beer bottles and cans and will get 1-4 years for tampering with evidence of a crime scene. Yes, he did something illegal, but we don’t know enough yet to “blame” him for what happened. I guess it’s human nature to find somebody guilty when a young, beautiful girl dies. As far as I know, he was scared shitless of getting charged with her death because he provided the alcohol and he, himself, was a minor. Call me whatever name you want to call me for defending him, but I can see why a kid of his stature would panic in this situation. No matter the circumstances from the night before, he’s underage and scared. This is why the drinking age should be lowered. He was 19 years old and obviously uneducated about the law. If society was more accepting of teenagers drinking (which they’re going to do whether or not it’s legal), kids wouldn’t freak out in situations like this one. Similarly, if society tolerated abortions, girls wouldn’t freak out when they find out they’re pregnant and throw their babies in dumpsters. On a smaller level than society, parents need to be more accepting of their teenagers drinking, even though it’s illegal. It’s all about open communication and education about drinking responsibly. For example, kids shouldn’t be afraid to call their parents and tell them they’re sleeping out because they don’t want to drive drunk. Of course, I have no idea if this guy was hiding something suspicious like drugs, so I’ll post an update about this story when I find out more. 

 

WIth a population of 7,448,618 (wikipedia), I guess it’s expected there will be lots of car-related deaths on Long Island. It’s been going on here forever, but I feel like it’s gotten worse since I moved back here from college. A lot worse. I remember in drivers’ education, the class portion (versus the driving portion) was spent entirely on drunk-driving. We had to cut out three newspaper articles about drunk-driving every week and write a summary about each one. Our final grade was based on a portfolio of drunk-driving Death, basically. We watched video after video of disfigured people and sad mothers. My teacher had lost a brother to drunk driving and informed us: “…look around you at your classmates. Get a good look. At least one of you will die in a car accident by the time you’re 25.” They’re obviously trying to change things and educate us. My high-school did that whole Grim-reaper thing. They “killed” students off throughout the day to represent some drunk-driving statistic. To be honest with you, I was extremely conscious about drunk-driving that day… that week, even… but then it got pushed to the back of my mind and hasn’t popped back up until right now.

 

Long Island tries, but fails to change anything about this problem. The Nassau cops arrested 149 people in two weeks and posted their photos all over the place (whether or not they were found guilty in court), but it doesn’t seem to be changing anything. We’ve got to come up with a better solution. Our legal society is all about punishment and not about prevention. You can punish these people all you want, but we have to get to the root of the problem. Cabs? Public buses? Free anti-drunk driving services? 

-I’m not volunteering myself as a cab driver, by the way. Just putting it out there- maybe some jolly and sober non-profiteer will see this and help us out here on the Island where the booze is a’flowin’

 

Three kids on Long Island who died in the past few days. 

We all have psychological disorders on some level. Lots of little kids have weird OCD tendencies but they disappear for most kids as soon as they get older and get made fun of. For others, unfortunately, the disorder is innate (genetically?) and they can’t consciously “quit” their ticks. Some count their steps or tap something with their right hand if they tap that something first with their left hand, to “even it out.” OCD is an anxiety disorder. You can say, “Joe, just stop turning the door knob 15 times! How about once?” or “Allison, just STOP washing your hands! It’s not that hard! Just don’t do it!” It’s not that easy. On the same level, you can’t just tell an anorexic to just “eat something, for god’s sake” or tell somebody who is morbidly obese to just lay off the calories. For some, it’s impossible.

 

Is cracking your knuckles a form of OCD? Biting your nails? OCD is an anxiety disorder. If Joe turns the doorknob 14 times, he feels incredibly anxious. He just has to turn it the 15^th time. What if he doesn’t? He will! Because it’s the only relief for this horribly crippling anxiety! Is smoking an anxiety disorder? Drug addiction? Alcoholism? I think so. Try telling a smoker to just “stop smoking then! If you hate it, then just don’t have another one!” Good luck with that. (Although you may have better luck now since the price of cigarettes in Suffolk County, Long Island just got raised to $6.50 and $8.50 in NYC.) 

 

One of the most strange and fascinating disorders is hoarding. For those of you who don’t know about it, hoarding is a form of OCD where somebody has intense anxiety about their possessions and they collect a ton of shit and never throw any of it out. What many people don’t know about is animal hoarding. When my 7th grade science teacher got busted for having tons of animals (dead, alive, and some barely alive) in his house and living in feces, I thought he was just being cruel to animals. I cannot believe there’s more than one person out there who has that disease! I guess I should have figured there was a relationship between Mr. Balsamo and the crazy cat ladies you see on the news who won’t let the authorities take away their precious cats. 

 

There’s a fine line between abnormal and normal. Check the DSM-IV-TR. It’s a clinical guide to psychological disorders. You’re in there.