Sunday, December 28, 2008

"He stopped drinking"

In light of the revelations in the Dan Bice column on State Representative Jeff Wood's past troubles with alcohol, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reiterated their support for Wood's resignation. This prompted a response from a reader,
Jeff Wood should stay in office. Let he who is without sin throw the first stone. He stopped drinking. What about the lawmakers still drinking?

The lesson should be, tax and regulate marijuana to fill the state budget gap and raise the penalties for DUI.

But Wood is like a lot of us. He made a mistake. Let him serve, then let voters decide.

"Your honor, the defendant may have killed his parents, but he's stopped killing people. Who among us would punish an orphan? If there is a lesson here, let's tax guns and bullets, and raise the penalty for carrying a concealed weapon."

The analogy isn't exact, but you get my point. "He stopped drinking." Yes, it was hard for him to continue drinking and smoking the pot pipe with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He also stopped hitting signs, snowbanks and medians, and ceased to be a menace to the roads.