Editor:
Compassion is not chosen nearly as often as condemnation.
I'm talking about compassion for people who have accidents or make mistakes that everyone seems so fast to persecute and prosecute. Crimes, after all, are committed intentionally by criminals, whereas accidents and mistakes happen to any of us.
For example: Last year, a close friend flew back on an overnight flight from Hawaii. She didn't sleep on the plane all night. Later in the afternoon she drove to an appointment in Ladner from Tsawwassen. She didn't feel tired.
She suddenly realized she was driving her car up the cement barrier on the right side of the overpass. She quickly pulled back into her traffic lane. She had fallen asleep.
She looked in the rear view mirror and saw the car behind her had fallen well back, so she must have been driving in a worrisome manner before steering off to the right and that driver must have been watching her do that without so much as a beep on their horn.
She was stunned. What if there had been someone walking or riding a bicycle that she might have killed?
An ICBC adjuster assured me that people fall asleep at the wheel much more often than we would expect. You obviously don't know that you are falling asleep or you would pull over.
It is unfortunate that we are only compassionate for our loved ones who make mistakes. Does anyone think Monty Robinson will live a day without remembering the motorcyclist involved in the fatal collision? If such a thing has never happened to you, maybe you will not always be so lucky and you will be the one persecuted and prosecuted.
Of course we have to be responsible for our actions, but perhaps we could save some of our righteousness for those who deliberately destroy lives like premeditated killers, drug dealers, wife beaters and corrupt politicians.
Cecilia Tanner
