ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606240123
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Margie Fisher
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER EDITORIAL WRITER
BEGINNING Sept. 1, for a three-month trial period, the usually white Mill Mountain Star is to glare red for 24 hours after every alcohol- or drug-related highway death in the New Century Council's nine-county, five-city region. Sponsors - the council and the Smith Mountain Lake chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving - hope this will educate the public about the seriousness of drunken driving. and so prevent it
The intent is laudable. Only a few curmudgeons are likely to oppose it. Count me among them.
MADD has done enormous good since coming on the scene in the late '70s. It has effectively lobbied for stronger laws against drunken driving and, more importantly, changed public attitudes.
For too many decades, drunks were portrayed in movies and TV skits as lovable, harmless buffoons. In Roanoke teen-agers' world of the '50s - at high-school sorority and fraternity parties at Baldwins Cabin, dances at the old Colonial Hills Club, all-day outings at Lakeside Amusement Park - the guys (it was mostly guys) who chug-a-lugged beer and got falling-down drunk were thought uproariously funny.
With 20-20 hindsight, I know they weren't. Some champion chug-a-luggers of my youth became habitual sots. Doubtless, not a few caused much grief to their families and others. Some may have killed or injured people while driving drunk - or, by now, killed themselves.
I take no pride in having laughed loudly at the underage boozers in my crowd of the '50s. But that's the way it was - and, if memory serves, neither the boozing nor the laughter was deterred one whit because the Mill Mountain Star sometimes burned red. We thought we were invincible, immortal.
I don't think a red star will work any better now to discourage drunken driving, and laughter about it has long since ceased.
Most people, even little kids, are already aware of the danger. Certainly, teen-agers have been well-briefed that drunken driving is a prime killer of their generation. Those who still get soused before getting behind the wheel already are resisting attempts by loved ones, friends and law-enforcement officials to stop. I can't see chronic abusers changing their ways simply because Nanny the Star recommends it.
Of course, many will argue, it won't hurt to try it. But while it's tried ,,,
The star that's been a welcoming beacon to Roanokers returning from trips away, the city's symbol that's filled many hearts with delight when spotted from miles away, will become a bad-news bearer. Instead of thinking, ``Wow, it's great to be home,'' we'll fret and wonder whether the deceased is someone we know.
The sight of the bleeding star could renew the pain and grief for many, including members of MADD, who've lost loved ones to drunken driving.
Visitors to the area may be dumbfounded to learn that a city would use its famous mountaintop ornament to celebrate death.
Others may lobby to use the star as a town crier of news that underscores other problems. Should the star go gun-metal gray for shooting deaths? Bruise-purplish for muggings? Orange for arson? Dalmatian black-and-white spotted for prevention of cruelty to animals? Bile green for food poisoning? Muddy brown for floods? Red, white and blue for flag burnings?
(Forget that last one. The city has already turned the star red, white and blue to trumpet its All America City award, and it surely would baffle strangers if it glowed in protest the same as in pride.)
I don't mean to make light of the MADD-New Century Council idea. And I don't really think the city would go so far as to turn the star plaid to celebrate diversity, or a gravelly hue to warn of potholes. But the star as obituary strikes me as tacky, morbid and stupefyingly small town.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB