Imagine

Imagine that you are fourteen years old. It is a Sunday and you will be fifteen on Wednesday. Your parents separated when you were six and subsequently divorced. You live with your Dad and even though you are a teenager, you have a wonderful relationship with both parents. Some things you talk about with Dad, but some things just for you and your Mom.

You have a little brother who is eleven years old. You fight sometimes but your Dad tells you to stick together because you are never going to get another full brother... and it makes sense... and you do. The two of you have been the children of divorced parents together since little brother was still in diapers and you depend on each other.

Your Mom married a really good guy who treats her well and loves you like his own son. This is a special part of your family that includes your only little sister. You don't really even think of her as a half-sister at all because ... how could you? It is for adults to make those differentiations. She is five years old and your little sister thinks that you can do anything. Even though you only really get to see each other for two weekends out of most months, you are closer than some brothers and sisters who live together.

You play baseball. You are on the track team at your school and one day you may get a major college scholarship... you are a good athelete and running is one of your special gifts. Running is one of the things that you and your Mother share together. Ever since you were old enough to run a mile run, your Mom and you have been running races together. From the milers you went to the five kilometer runs. Your Mom and you run in a lot of these races together. It is something that you can share.

You have a lot of friends. It just is not as awkward for you at school as for some people. You have always had a knack for making friends and knowing what to say... even though it has gotten you into trouble at times, in school. You are not a bad kid, not the total class clown, just enthusiastic and vibrant... and who really needs an "A" in "Conduct" anyway? Your Mom is a "talker" and your Dad just "understands people" and you got both of them rolled up into you.

School is so easy for you. Concepts that your classmates are struggling with seem like things you learned years ago. Your academic future is bright. You do not know, yet, what you want to be for sure but realistically it could be pretty much anything you desire. You are thinking about being a writer, a teacher... maybe English, and you have entertained the thought of being a lawyer. There is time to decide still. Whatever it is, you have decided that you are going to go to college.

Your mother has a special day planned for the two of you today. She always makes birthdays special. Your Mother... you still call her Mommy even though you are almost fifteen ... because that's just who she is... she thinks birthdays are wonderful times. She is going to take you shopping, maybe to a movie and to eat at a nice restaurant.

Your Mom has a big birthday party planned for you next saturday. You have already invited twenty-five friends. You have never had a party this big before. Your Mom has made plans for the two of you to go get your learner's permit to drive this week. All in all, I imagine that you will have to agree, your life is going pretty good, all things considered.

Can you imagine a life like this?

Now imagine that your Mommy lives in a town called Athens, GA, "a drinking town with a football problem." Now imagine that early this morning you found out that your Mommy was almost four times too drunk to drive a car legally. Imagine that your Mommy did not get drunk at home but was fed drinks by {read: negligent} bartenders in a town called Athens, GA. Because, how could they be anything but negligent if they keep serving and serving drinks to patrons until they are almost lethally intoxicated? Imagine that there is a bar in Athens, GA that has marble steps with no traction aids or handrails that lead down to the only bathrooms that are accessible to customers. Imagine that the name of this particular Athens, GA bar is "City Bar."

That seems like it should be enough, but we can not stop there as much as we would like to. Imagine, if you will, that Sunday was a blur and tonight your Mommy is dead.

Now can you imagine a life like this?

Now let us put this in terms that are black and white with no shades of grey. If you are a bartender or a bar owner, you or someone like you just murdered this thirty-four year old Mommy of three who unfortunately had a penchant for alcohol that you exploit. I am sure that you will want to find some way to justify what you do but at the end of the day, even though you may lie to yourself to be able to sleep at night, you are what you are. In pursuit of your idol, the dollar, you are willing to sell people the bullets to load the guns in order to kill themselves. In cases where you are negligent to the point of allowing a patron to get almost lethally intoxicated (reportedly .30 BAC fyi), especially when your establishment has a flight of dimly lit rock stairs (!) with no handrails for drunk people to climb to relieve the bladder you fill, you are even offering to pull the trigger for them.

Imagine you were fourteen years old and loved your Mommy very much... or eleven... or five. You are lucky it is only your imagination. It is my son.