Civic Responsibility Strikes Again

I was totally appalled last night. So, today is the Mexican Independence Day, which is an even bigger holiday here than July 4 in the US. People take this date really seriously, in the partying sense. We went to dinner last night, and as we were leaving the restaurant at 9 there was a line wrapped around the block of people waiting to get in and enjoy the festivities. Every restaurant, bar, and club in the city seemed to have a special party planned, with employees in costume, party favors, the whole works.

Well, great, all well and good. People want to party and have a good time, they should. As you can imagine, this is a pretty big drinking holiday. Now here is where the real genius comes in. The city police decided that this would be a "free" night: i.e. they would NOT put up road blocks and randomly test people for drunken driving. It's like they're saying "Look, driving drunk is wrong, but we know on this night people REALLY want to drink and drive, so we won't try too hard to discourage it, just this once".

I mean, come ON, does ANYONE think this is a good idea? Besides all you alcoholics out there. The police clarified that if you got in an accident or something and it turns out you were drinking you'd still get in trouble, but PLEASE! Why would you relax your drunk driving prevention on the ONE FREAKING NIGHT that it's going to be the biggest problem ever? Can someone please explain the logic to me, because I sure don't get it!

I'm sure my mother would be completely horrified reading this blog. Fortunately, she doesn't know how to work her cellphone, much less a computer... I just hope my sisters and brother have the good sense not to share if they happen to read this. (I know I know: I'm screwed if I rely on others to have good sense...)