Driving For Dummies -1

Part 1 because I anticipate this will be an on-going series. (It is: Driving For Dummies - 2 )

Several events over the past seven days have prompted me to write.

Grieving Dad Publishes Letter to McGuinty

“The father of a Toronto teen who died in a car accident in Muskoka has sent a letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty calling on him to crack down on young drivers.”

I’ve read through this article several times, and I still don’t get it.

I cannot fully comprehend the grief of losing a teenage son. I can comprehend the grief of losing contact with a child, as can many fathers of my acquaintance, but I cannot understand the steps that follow up to and including a letter to the premier.

For one thing, I’d have thought that the local police could use that kind of support – they are the ones faced with daily decisions about whether to hit hard or let go. They are the ones who have to deal with angry parents. Having a grieving dad to back you up in the face of angry parents ought to count for something.

“Mulcahy says he believes his son, who was driving, would still be alive if he hadn't been drinking or speeding that night.”

I believe that too, but I can’t break the link between the father and the son. Fathers are supposed to guide and lead sons by example, are they not? What really happened here? What was the insistent drip-drip-dripping away over the years that led the son (and the other sons) to believe that having a few, or a lot of, drinks and then driving was acceptable? From whence those standards? Not from McGuinty, I’ll be bound. Nor from the local police. Nor from those who staff your local friendly neighborhood trauma unit.

It is in deed (“in the deed”) a sad affair, but saddened all the more by an insistent drip-drip-drip that suggests that if only someone else would look after us, or our children, life wouldn’t be so bad.

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