Recently, my Facebook and Twitter have been flooded with the recent news of a 20 year old who rides around campus in her pink Barbie jeep. A student at Texas State University, Tara Monroe, has become Internet famous by riding around to her classes in a tiny pink Barbie jeep usually reserved for children. The big question is why? Tara Monroe had gotten her license suspended after refusing to take a Breathalyzer test after she was pulled over. This is an automatic suspension of your license. When her father found out she had her license suspended he drove to the University and took her car away leaving her with a bike. Monroe says she then decided to buy the jeep and drive around, saying that her friends were not shocked because they “Do stuff like this all the time.”
Yes, I will admit this is funny. This is a creative way to get around campus and just an overall funny situation. However, why is no one talking about the fact that the entire reason this came to be is because Monroe refused to take a Breathalyzer test? Let's assume by her refusal that she was drunk. Why else would one refuse to take a Breathalyzer? I am the first to admit that everyone makes mistakes and I have made my fair share of them but drinking and driving is one mistake that is completely irreversible. Let's say that, God forbid, she had gotten into a car accident because she was drunk, would the Internet still find this funny? Drinking and driving is a mistake that not only affects the person driving drunk but can affect innocent people as well. There are countless stories about drunk drivers striking innocent people. Just the other day in San Diego there was an innocent pedestrian who was struck by a drunk driver and instantly killed. These things happen. People die due to drunk driving but everyone is so caught up with how this girl “remedied” her situation to worry about that.
Personally, yes, I find it funny that she is 20 years old, 5” 3’ and driving around campus in a kid’s tike car. I do not find the reason behind it funny. It's inescapable that she was probably driving drunk and the cost of this could not have only been her life but others lives as well. Why are we not focused on that? Currently, this girl probably feels like she won the lottery, sure, she may have her license suspended but she is receiving national coverage for her “funny” idea. Would it have been “funny” if she crashed into a telephone pole? Would it have been funny if instead of buying the jeep from a little kid, she had hit one? No. Some of you reading may think I am being harsh but I do not feel drinking and driving is a subject to be taken lightly. There are so many other options out there opposed to getting behind the wheel after having one too many that it is just plain inexcusable. Tara Monroe, I know you are 20 years old and driving a pink jeep is all fun and games now but it would not be fun and games if you had hit someone that night. America, stop celebrating a girl for drinking and driving; it's pathetic.
