GREENVILLE - When money becomes the primary motivating factor, politicians somehow come around to doing the so-called right thing.
After digging in their heels for the past couple of years, the Mississippi Legislature passed a bill this month that lowers the driving under the influence threshold from .10 to the federally mandated .08.
But don't get the idea that our elected officials did this out of benevolence - making our roadways safer from the mayhem caused by inebriated motorists - because keeping the public out of harm's way was not the immediate consideration. Loss of federal transportation funding is.
If Mississippi did not fall in line with the rest of the nation by fiscal 2003, about $2 million in federal highway cash would go flying out the window. For a state already strangling on its own red ink, every dollar counts.
Don't get the idea that Mississippi is alone, because there are some 20 state legislatures that have not lowered the blood-alcohol level which establishes legal intoxication.
Now lawmakers are doing a two-step, and patting themselves on the back for getting the job done. But what took them so long?
"We didn't want to be the 50th state to go to .08," said state Rep. Percy Watson, D-Hattiesburg, chairman of the House Judiciary A Committee.
Nonetheless, over the past couple of years, nonchalance has characterized a Legislature that has shown an insouciance when it comes to addressing critical issues affecting this state.
From the state flag and tort reform to redistricting and public education, our lawmakers have been unwilling or unable to "pull the trigger," which just continues the fiscal hemorrhaging.
Across the state, 379 people died in alcohol-related accidents on Mississippi roads in 2000 - a slight increase from 362 deaths in 1999, according to statistics from the National Traffic Safety Administration.
In 2000, drunken motorists accounted for 39.9 percent of all accidents in the state, compared to 39.1 in 1999. Utah has the lowest percentage of alcohol-related deaths with 24 percent in 2000, and that increased 4 percentage points from 1999.
The apparent indifference on the part of our elected and prosecutorial officials only serves to fuel an already systemic problem - drunken motorists continuing to prowl the highways.
Mississippi has rather weak motor vehicle laws when it comes to DUI, because people who have been convicted of multiple DUI violations seem to be able to drive with impunity even though their privileges are revoked.
Does anyone really care?
Even states with stringent DUI and DWI laws encounter similar problems in policing these drunks, who are the scourges of the roadways.
Studies have shown that motorists who forfeit their driver's licenses often fail to renew them after satisfying the penalty, yet continue to operate motor vehicles - often without liability coverage.
Granted alcoholism is a disease, but getting behind the wheel of an automobile drunk is a criminal act and should be treated as such. It's human nature. People will continue to do things when they are allowed to get away unscathed, without sanctions or noticeable public rebuke.
People who abuse alcohol and drugs are nothing more than human time bombs, especially when they attempt to operate a motor vehicle in an impaired state.
How many lives must senselessly be snuffed out before we comprehend the message and get these menaces to society off the road?
The next victim of a drunken motorist could be you.
