PlatKat.com: A Prelude to Freezing

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

A Prelude to Freezing

Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night like I always do and heard the freezing rain outside. I was sure it would be cold today, and I was right.

Who the hell did this?!?

We're supposed to visit my aunt in Minnesota tomorrow, where the current weather is Fair, 2°F, feels like -12°F. Gus suggested calling my aunt and telling her we couldn't make it to the airport because it's too cold here. It's sort of ironic.

Speaking of irony, I saw a commercial today that featured a young female police performing her first arrest for drunk driving. Five months later, she was killed by a drunk driver.

Worst use of irony in a PSA of its kind EVAR!!

Sure, it's too bad that she was killed. Most people find death unfortunate, no matter who it is. However, I think that commercial was attempting to imply that her life was extra-valuable because it was her job to arrest drunk drivers who could possibly kill people.

I don't buy it. I think it makes as much sense as pro-life extremists killing doctors who perform abortions. I agree that the policewoman, as well as any abortion doctor who is dead now, both had the potential to greatly impact their communities. I don't think their deaths should be seen as more important simply because of the careers they chose.

The more important issue that I want to drive home is that preventing death alone does not a noble person make. That dead cop could have been a real bitch. And that abortion doctor could have been a real nice guy.

Had the dead policewoman not been killed, she may have quit the force a year later anyway to have children or pursue another career goal. The abortion doctor may have done the same, if the pro-lifers hadn't been playing God.

And further, what if the handful of lives the policewoman saved were those of crooks and gangsters? What if the fetuses the abortion doctor removed were of those same ill-reputed types?

"But Kat," you say, "you are doing some extreme speculating. You're asking how I know that they're not bad people, but how do you know they're not good?"

And I answer that I don't.

My point is that when a life is taken, be it a police officer or an abortion doctor (or a teacher, or an athlete, or a child), it is only as important as every other life that was taken before it and every other life that will be taken after it.

I believe that commercial was trying to raise awareness of the "extremely" harmful effects of drunk driving, but I don't like how they used a policewoman to make it seem "extra" bad. I believe the makers of this commercial could have sent a more accurate message that is less condescending by focusing on the thoughtlessness of the act of drunk driving and not any particular type of person that it can kill.

posted by platkat @ 1:05 PM