I have no title, only sadness

Today we learned, sadly, that Coworker's Best Friend's daughter was killed in a drunk driving accident. She was 15 years old. The driver that hit them was drunk and on drugs, and so, it turns out, was the girl driving the car (drunk). The driver survived and will have to live her entire life knowing that her actions killed a young woman. When CBF learned she had been drinking, she un-invited her to her daughter's funeral.

After the intial shock wore off, I imagined the pain coworker was in at that moment, and wondered what I would say to her when she returned from lunch, I considered the following bit of sadness.

Paris Hilton was sentenced to 45 days in jail for violating the terms of her probation, earned for a drunk driving offense. There are those who believe that Paris should go free, or at least it appears that way. When I checked the website of freeparis.org, and the myspace connected to it, I discovered that although there are a lot of options to buy a t shirt and sign the petition, the 1500 "friends" on MySpace were the kind of spammers that I spend occational evenings clearing out of my "friend request box", neither site had a whole lot of backup, and it looked like a big joke. A way to get publicity.
However, what isn't funny is that Paris thinks she should not have to go to jail. She thinks the judge was being mean to her. Her mother believes that they spent a lot of money and she should not have to go to jail. I think she's lucky not to have killed someone the night she went out for an In and Out Burger (Third person I know of that got a DUI because they were drunk and wanted a burger. One of them almost did kill someone. But he didn't complain about the TWO months he was in jail, he thanked his lucky stars he didn't kill that woman after all).

I fear that she will not learn her lesson. That 30 days in a 10 x 10 with 2 pairs of underwear a week and no privacy will make her feel like a martyr. And those who support her will continue to scream foul because she's rich, famous, beautiful (I don't agree, but eye of the beholder) she shouldn't have to follow the law. I wonder what it will take for our society to understand that we are all equal in the eyes of the law. Or at least, we are supposed to be.

Coworker, when we talked about it, said something that will haunt me for awhile. She said it could have been her son. That her friend had put in the same effort and love raising her daughter as she had her son.
Then, to top it off, she asked me what she was going to tell her son. Because they were close, he and that little girl. they had known each other since they were 5. He had the biggest crush on her.

Tonight Coworker will have to face one of the toughest moments of her parenting career. I wish there was something I could do. But like I told her, I know there is nothing I can say that will make it better.

Perhaps people who get caught DUI should have to attend the funerals of people killed by drunk drivers. Perhaps when they see the pain it causes when a life is taken...No. I think that the kind of people who don't take responsibility for thier actions, who think they are above the law wouldn't be affected.

I heard them call her a role model.