Happy Labor Day...You're Going to Jail 
Monday, September 3rd, 2007

Well, today is Labor Day. I'm driving in the car yesterday and I hear this commercial on the radio: "(BOOM) Do you know what that is? That is the sound of the cell door being slammed on you after you get arrested and booked for DUI." Uh, okay. But I didn't do anything...? Fear-mongering tactics annoy me. It's one thing to keep the population safe, and entirely another to try and make the fear of law enforcement / government greater than the fear of God, for goodness sake. I picture children in the back seat of cars while their parents are talking - and as I always did, tuning out the parent-speak and listening to the radio - little saucer eyes widening at the sound of a cell door clanging. I think of parents driving their sons and daughters back to college, their hands tightening on the steering wheel as the commercial buffers the silence between them, and worrying about letting their child loose into the world.

I just think it's excessive. It's not that I don't want the state to enforce the law. I simply don't understand why they have to use fear so blatantly, pointedly. Nor am I an advocate of driving under the influence - I was in D.A.R.E. as a child, S.A.D.D. as a teenager, and have been a designated driver more times than I can count. But, in my humble opinion, the people who might disobey these laws probably wouldn't be swayed by the dumb commercials, and those who would never disobey them are the ones who get jittery.

For some reason I found myself thinking about it again today (that was yesterday, that I heard that in the car). I go to the all-powerful Google and try to find out who was sponsoring the radio commercials. I guess the Ohio State Patrol, so I go to their homepage. And instead of their homepage, I get an intro page...this:

I don't know. Is this effective? Is it preventative? I still haven't found out who sponsored the commercials - hey, it's Labor Day. I'm on vacation.