Risky Behavior

You know it's a slow news day when the Today Show has a feature story on a woman who massages sharks into hypnosis in its first half hour. "Concentrate only on my hand, Sharky. You are getting sleepy...sleepy. Your eyelids are getting heavy...heavy. What do you mean you don't have eyelids? Cousteau, get me out of here before Sharky wakes up!"

The feature story that set my blood boiling though was that of a Michigan man who was jailed for Child Abuse for using his 9 year old daughter as his Designated Driver. A gas station convenience store camera with audio showed him buying the girl a candy apple and bragging that he was drunk and she was his driving his van. There was exterior video that showed the little girl hopping into a Safety Seat behind the wheel and pulling away from the pumps.

The issue here is whether it is better to have a 9 year old (possibly on a sugar high from that candy apple) or a drunk driving down the Interstate. I contend that the Public Safety is improved with the 9 year old. This is not Child Abuse. It is what all those Miller Lite commercial tag lines "Drink Responsibly" urge us to do.

Proponents of raising the Driving Age tell us that 16 year olds lack sufficient brain development to determine "risky behavior". Yet, we have an adult massaging sharks. My guess is that the Michigan 9 year old's brain is sufficiently developed to avoid manual contact with sharks and also to get her drunken Dad safely home.