TEACHING AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS
January 22nd 2007 12:45
It seems us old farts can still learn a lot from the younger generation. An article written by Michele Mandel in the Toronto Sun brought this to my attention and I thought I'd share it with you.
The younger generation has perfected the art of avoiding responsibility. I don't know if it's the same where you live, but here we are inundated almost daily with news reports of young thugs being hauled into court and walking away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. "Gee, Your Honour, it wasn't my fault. I thought true life was the very same as the video games I play. Don't blame me. Blame the producers of these games who make me play them." "I tried my best all my life, Your Honour, but my parents tried to put a curfew on me and I just snapped. Don't blame me, blame those monsters." "It's not my fault, Your Honour, that my folks didn't give me enough time outs when I was younger." "My parents spanked me when I was a kid, Your Honour, and as you know, violence begets violence. They called it spanking when all it really is is outright, violent abuse. Blame them, not me." And on it goes.
Evidently, at least one of us has gotten the message and taken a page from these stalwart, misunderstood citizens.
Daniel Rouleau is a 55-year-old millwright who will spend this "horrendous weekend" worried about what awaits him come Tuesday morning. You see, Danny boy is cooling his heels in jail awaiting a judge's sentencing upon him after the hit-and-run that killed 72-year-old Laurie Landry. He has waited for this moment for 3 years. No doubt the judge will take that into consideration and give him 2 ˝ to 3 times credit for time served. The judge has a choice to sentence him to house arrest for two years less a day, as his lawyer has requested, or send him directly to jail, perhaps for as long as five years as the Crown wants. If the judge goes for the defense request, this slug will spend no time in prison. And that sucks, big time.
You see, Laurie Landry was a deaf senior who had just got off the bus after volunteering at the Knights of Columbus bingo and was trying to cross a virtually traffic-free Bloor St. But Danny wants to shift the blame on him. "He wasn't where he should have been," says Rouleau. Danny says that he never saw him. "He was invisible in the dark in the rain." Nor did he know he hit him -- a claim the victim's daughter finds preposterous. "He weighed 252 pounds," says Ruth Patenaude, 44. "How can you not know you've hit something that heavy?"
To get around that little argument, Rouleau has the perfect come back. The witnesses were the ones who actually caused the accident, that they had stopped in the lane in front of him and he had to swerve into the next just as Landry was crossing.
Rouleau would have you believe that he was "completely horrified" at seeing himself vilified on the Sun's front page with his photo and the headline, Deadly Drunk's Legacy of Pain. He insists that he wasn't really drunk. "In nine hours I'd only consumed 80 beers," he says, "I left a beer and a half on the bar to stay within the guidelines of one drink per hour." Where did this jackass learn his math? But it wasn't his fault, you understand.
Michele writes, "I was totally in control," he says. "I don't drive drunk." He learned his lesson after losing his licence 16 years ago for drunk driving. But his estranged daughter, Mindy Parker, says her dad always drove drunk -- even when she was a pregnant passenger in his car. "I don't think he's gotten the message. He doesn't care about anybody but himself." Peel Police charged him with exceeding twice the legal alcohol limit, but he says that must have been a mistake. "There's no way I could have that kind of reading." In his mind, everyone conspired against him: the police, "lying" witnesses, even Landry's anguished relatives. "It's been twisted," he says. "It's only one side from a bitter family." I think I might be just a little bitter myself. The man he killed was a senior, deaf and a great-grandfather. Yet Rouleau has no sympathy for anyone but himself.
Michele goes on to write, "That is not the impression he gave on Wednesday, as he sat there stone-faced while Landry's relatives delivered heart-wrenching victim impact statements. He has an explanation for that as well. "Boys don't cry. My heart was going out to them. I was doing everything I could not to cry." Yet there has never been a word of apology, of regret. Even after the civil suit brought against him by the family was settled, there has been silence. He says he just hasn't had the opportunity. So why did he plead guilty? He claims he was tricked into it in return for the promise of a lighter sentence. Instead, he now faces the possibility of doing real jail time. "It will destroy the rest of my life."
Clearly, after explaining it to us, Rouleau deserves our sympathy. NOT!!
Contempt might be closer to the truth.
The younger generation has perfected the art of avoiding responsibility. I don't know if it's the same where you live, but here we are inundated almost daily with news reports of young thugs being hauled into court and walking away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. "Gee, Your Honour, it wasn't my fault. I thought true life was the very same as the video games I play. Don't blame me. Blame the producers of these games who make me play them." "I tried my best all my life, Your Honour, but my parents tried to put a curfew on me and I just snapped. Don't blame me, blame those monsters." "It's not my fault, Your Honour, that my folks didn't give me enough time outs when I was younger." "My parents spanked me when I was a kid, Your Honour, and as you know, violence begets violence. They called it spanking when all it really is is outright, violent abuse. Blame them, not me." And on it goes.
Daniel Rouleau is a 55-year-old millwright who will spend this "horrendous weekend" worried about what awaits him come Tuesday morning. You see, Danny boy is cooling his heels in jail awaiting a judge's sentencing upon him after the hit-and-run that killed 72-year-old Laurie Landry. He has waited for this moment for 3 years. No doubt the judge will take that into consideration and give him 2 ˝ to 3 times credit for time served. The judge has a choice to sentence him to house arrest for two years less a day, as his lawyer has requested, or send him directly to jail, perhaps for as long as five years as the Crown wants. If the judge goes for the defense request, this slug will spend no time in prison. And that sucks, big time.
To get around that little argument, Rouleau has the perfect come back. The witnesses were the ones who actually caused the accident, that they had stopped in the lane in front of him and he had to swerve into the next just as Landry was crossing.
Rouleau would have you believe that he was "completely horrified" at seeing himself vilified on the Sun's front page with his photo and the headline, Deadly Drunk's Legacy of Pain. He insists that he wasn't really drunk. "In nine hours I'd only consumed 80 beers," he says, "I left a beer and a half on the bar to stay within the guidelines of one drink per hour." Where did this jackass learn his math? But it wasn't his fault, you understand.
Michele writes, "I was totally in control," he says. "I don't drive drunk." He learned his lesson after losing his licence 16 years ago for drunk driving. But his estranged daughter, Mindy Parker, says her dad always drove drunk -- even when she was a pregnant passenger in his car. "I don't think he's gotten the message. He doesn't care about anybody but himself." Peel Police charged him with exceeding twice the legal alcohol limit, but he says that must have been a mistake. "There's no way I could have that kind of reading." In his mind, everyone conspired against him: the police, "lying" witnesses, even Landry's anguished relatives. "It's been twisted," he says. "It's only one side from a bitter family." I think I might be just a little bitter myself. The man he killed was a senior, deaf and a great-grandfather. Yet Rouleau has no sympathy for anyone but himself.
Michele goes on to write, "That is not the impression he gave on Wednesday, as he sat there stone-faced while Landry's relatives delivered heart-wrenching victim impact statements. He has an explanation for that as well. "Boys don't cry. My heart was going out to them. I was doing everything I could not to cry." Yet there has never been a word of apology, of regret. Even after the civil suit brought against him by the family was settled, there has been silence. He says he just hasn't had the opportunity. So why did he plead guilty? He claims he was tricked into it in return for the promise of a lighter sentence. Instead, he now faces the possibility of doing real jail time. "It will destroy the rest of my life."
Clearly, after explaining it to us, Rouleau deserves our sympathy. NOT!!
Contempt might be closer to the truth.
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