Paris Blues

"The way I see it, you should live everyday like its your birthday." Paris Hilton

This will be brief. I have a weak stomach and an even weaker attention span when it comes to Paris Hilton. Plus I don't want to add more ink to an already overflowing well.

Ha! As if my small voice will make a dent in the cacophony of sound and fury over a rich, spoiled nothing.

My goal is to keep the focus on the crime, and Hilton's criminally negligent behavior.

Paris Hilton drove drunk. Impaired. Under the Influence.

She got caught, fined, punished. Ignored the consequences. And did it again. And again. And again.

It's a miracle Hilton hasn't killed someone. Or herself. And it's only a matter of time until she does. Which makes me want to smack her upside her vapid little head.

Drunk driving hits all my buttons. It's society's most self-indulgent crime.

Every person who drives drunk is saying, I don't care about anyone but me. I do what I want when I want. I'm more important than you or your safety. I count and you don't.

It's also society's most passive-aggressive crime. Anyone who goes out intending to drink already knows s/he shouldn't drive home. Responsible people, even without Paris Hilton's resources can--and do--prearrange a ride, a taxi, a room... or a blanket in the back seat.

Yet drunk drivers like Paris seem to have something to prove. They've got a two thousand pound chip on their shoulders -- and feel entitled to use it with impunity. They flaunt authority, the police, the law... the consequences.

Think of how often we see news reports of horrific car accidents caused by drunk drivers already on probation for prior offenses, with suspended licenses and often outstanding warrants.

Just like Paris Hilton.

And of course, they're the ones who survive the crashes. We see them on newscasts sitting dazed in the back of police cars as the mangled bodies of their victims are loaded into ambulances.

We can't know how many times Paris Hilton got behind the wheel impaired and put lives in danger. But neither media frenzy nor her own frenzy--nor time in jail--will stop her from going right back out there and doing it again.

Why? Because she can. Which is the biggest crime of all.


A footnote: as we gear up for the media blitz surrounding the 10th Anniversary of Princess Diana's death, let's remember that the driver who crashed her car was drunk. He came out alive.