ST. LOUIS Cardinals relief pitcher Josh Hancock was killed in an automobile accident. Reports indicate that his blood-alcohol content was almost twice that of the legal limit in Missouri.
Hancock's father is now suing the restaurant that served him drinks.
University of Mary Washington President William Frawley is hit with two driving-under-the-influence citations in as many days and loses his job.
Paris Hilton is going to jail following a DUI conviction.
We can no longer tolerate such incidents. The time for action is now! We must outlaw alcohol.
That's right, Prohibition Round 2. And this time we make it stick. Out with the "fruit of the vine" and the devil's brew! We need to shoot for a 100 percent sober America.
We are a nation that seeks to be drug-free, yet we tolerate alcohol, the most dangerous drug of them all. Why? Because it is socially accepted.
Well, so is marijuana among some segments of society, but we still arrest people for smoking pot.
We need to do the same with alcohol. Get whiskey, wine and beer off the shelves and out of the reach of Americans who get hooked on it.
Did you know that driving under the influence of alcohol is the most frequently committed crime in America? That's a sad fact that leads to deaths and injuries.
According to recent statistics, 347 people died in Virginia in 2005 as a result of alcohol-related vehicle crashes.
Nationwide, 16,885 perished on our highways that same year because of drunken drivers. That's more than five times the number of Americans who perished in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In this respect, alcohol could be labeled a weapon of mass destruction.
Alcohol is one of the leading causes of divorce in this country and drinking leads to the loss of innumerable jobs.
Alcohol makes people drunk and foolish, causing them to embarrass themselves and commit acts they normally wouldn't.
Alcohol can be blamed for many unwanted pregnancies and the transmission of venereal disease because couples sometimes get so drunk they don't know what they are doing.
Drinking leads to fights that result in death and injury. Drunks fall off bridges and into the paths of automobiles and trains.
And just last week, a teenager in Maryland died of alcohol poisoning.
How much longer can we put up with all this? We need to get rid of alcohol and we need to do it now!
There are those who would argue that it is the drinker, not the whiskey, wine or beer that is the danger. These are the same people who tell you that people, not guns, are the cause of shootings.
If we rid our society of guns, there will be no more killings. If we rid our society of alcohol, there will be no more drunken-driving deaths. It is as simple as that.
What of those who would make or drink whiskey despite prohibition laws?
Put those lawbreakers in jail! Anyone who is caught with alcoholic beverages would be labeled a criminal and prosecuted.
Of course, this would require the need for more jails and law-enforcement officers, but the added construction work and new police jobs would make up for losses in alcohol-related industries.
If we reinstate prohibition, we should also restrict trade with any countries that allow whiskey, been or wine consumption. Those who manufacture alcoholic beverages would face American justice, no matter where they operate. It would be the only way to prevent alcohol from flowing into our country from the outside.
Having never taken a drink of alcohol in my life (or used illegal drugs of any type), I feel I can look at the problem from an objective viewpoint. (I have had some relatives who were drunkards, however). And I say let's make this a dry--and safer--country again.
As with other mind-altering drugs, education would be the key. And we must start with our young people. In elementary schools, the D.A.R.E. students could sing this little song to prevent them from ever drinking:
We don't drink whiskey;
We don't drink wine;
We think that beer tastes
Like turpentine;
We sing out loudly though we are small
Only bad people drink alcohol.
Once alcohol is eliminated, we can concentrate on putting tobacco users in jail.
Donnie Johnston: