A fitting punishment

I was recently a patient at Eastern Maine Medical Center. I am disabled by multiple sclerosis and am familiar with the physical therapy departments, both on Grant Five and the main floor. I am also acquainted with other disabled people, both disabled and handicapped. The difference between disabled and handicapped being “disabled” means what the disease (e.g., multiple sclerosis, Polio, etc.) has done to us and “handicapped” meaning what society has neglected to do (barriers, drunken drivers, etc.).

This letter is about the handicapped and the drunken driver. And about Gary. I never learned his last name and I only knew him for four days, but I learned much about him and his handicapped disability.

Gary met with a drunken driver on his snowmobile, and if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet, he would be dead. But he has spent the last six months as a patient at EMMC.

So here, instead of another protest letter against drunken drivers, may I suggest the punishment to drunken drivers be not a fine or jail time but that it may fit the crime.

Let the drunken driver, if the victim survives, be assigned the task of being present and taking an active part in his or her (the victim’s) rehabilitation, both physical and occupational. Watch the consequences of their crime and learn what people like Gary have to learn all over again — how to walk, talk, feed themselves — all the things the drunks take for granted, too. Maybe then they will be rehabilitated, also. Sharon E. Archer Bangor