The financial costs of driving under the influence of alcohol
For me, living a financially responsible lifestyle involves being a responsible citizen. But what can happen when a person is not a responsible citizen? I investigated. Consider this story: Once upon a time there was a beautiful looking woman from Mexico who was skinny. To her friends, since her beauty was ‘œsizzling hot’ and since she was quite thin they jokingly and lovingly nicknamed her ‘œJalapeno On A Stick’ (jalapenos are hot peppers that grow in Mexico).
‘œJalapeno’ arranged to be married to an American man. After their ceremony in southern California they lived together and tried to endure a marriage that was established on convenience more than it was positioned on mutual romantic love. Throughout the years Jalapeno got educated and even learned the English language, becoming quite proficient in it. She also became entitled to the many benefits attached to being married to an American: a family visa, work visa, and to be citizen of America, all of which she achieved. When she got all of her green light cards she divorced her husband and began her journey as a single and legitimate working woman in America. Working in the home loan business she made decent money for herself, especially when the economy was in a positive cycle. With her lucrative salary she was able to support herself and even buy a house on her own. She was an amicable person with a growing circle of friends.
Jalapeno, however, had a problem: drinking too much tequila. One evening as she was driving her Mercedes (that she leased with her own money) she was pulled over by the police for speeding. When the officer gave her the infamous breathalyzer test so as to check her blood-alcohol content and when she failed the test he realized she had been drinking under the influence of alcohol. Her blood-alcohol level exceeded the normal level. She was unable to drive and she later needed to appear before a judge in court for her irresponsibility. Along with having to pay more than $10,000 in fees, her license was suspended for 30 days and she needed to attend Alcohol Anonymous classes, which she did, for a while. When the 30 days passed Jalapeno received her license back. As the economy went into a down cycle, Jalapeno sold her house and moved into an apartment she rented in a Newport Beach complex.
A few years after her first DUI, Jalapeno was driving home from a night out with friends and smashed her silver Mercedes into a tree at the apartment complex. She missed a turn as she was trying to park her car and called it a night. A neighbor heard the loud crash and called 911. The police came immediately and gave Jalapeno the breathalyzer test. Her blood-alcohol content exceeded the permissible level for a driver. She was ordered to appear in court, again. In addition to having to pay more than $10,000 in fees, her license was suspended for one year, she had to attend Alcohol Anonymous classes, and she had to go to jail for thirty-days. She was sick over having to go to jail. She barely ate for days before the Newport Police Station sent five’”not one, but five’”police officers to her home to transport her to the Santa Ana jail. The five officers who escorted her cost her an additional $500, $100 per officer, which she later got a bill for in the mail. When she was in jail she barely ate as well’”getting even skinnier’”and she had a hard time going to the bathroom because she was emotionally a wreck: frightened and nervous from being in a strange and guarded environment where every move was monitored.
Upon her release from jail Jalapeno became adamant on preaching to her friends and loved ones to take a taxi should they drink and drive, telling them that the consequences of a DUI are not worth driving intoxicated. Jalapeno has also been seriously practicing what she has been preaching.
Jalapeno’s license was returned to her a few weeks ago. When she eventually buys a car for herself she has to have a breathalyzer device installed in it. Before she tries to start the ignition she has to breathe into the device. If she is intoxicated the car won’t start. This protective factor will cost her $80 a month for three years unless, somehow, the insurance for her car goes into someone else’s name.
Should Jalapeno have even one drink, drive a car and get into an accident whereby another person is killed she would be sentenced to jail for murder. Should Jalapeno drink and drive again and get a third DUI she would face even tougher consequences: going to jail for at least four months along with having her driver’s license suspended for three years and having to attend DUI classes for eighteen months. Jalapeno would also face the real possibility of being deported to Mexico for not being a responsible American citizen.
Jalapeno is fortunate in that her intoxicated driving never injured another person or herself. Her DUIs and their consequences’”including financial costs’”have acted like extreme wake up calls for her to take hold of the wheel and be a responsible citizen, which she now is.
I personally thank Jalapeno for allowing me to share her story with others in the hopes that her story will prevent other people from drinking and driving and perhaps even save lives. For that Jalapeno is my hero.
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Written by: Lana Marconi. For more information on Dr. Lana Marconi’s private therapy practice in the Orange County, California area, and to download her self-help books visit: www.drlana.com.
Photo credit: stock.xchng.
So there’s a good lesson here: don’t drink and drive. It will cost you a lot. Fine. But what’s with all the xenophobic ranting at the beginning about “Jalapeno” (and wow, what a pseudonym) getting married just for the “green light cards” etc.? That’s really quite offensive, and unnecessary. And speaking as an immigration attorney, US citizenship is not revoked based on any criminal activity. You can lose green cards (which aren’t green, by the way), but not citizenship.
Lana,
I have to admit that, like BD, I was struck by all the excessive and superfluous details about “Jalapeno,” and the story of her supposed ascent into U.S life. She may well have been educated, but perhaps not a native English speaker, not that that should matter either way: overall, I wonder why it seemed so necessary to drive home the fact that she was a Mexican immigrant who, by your account, made good. It’s hard not to read the underlying distaste for her in your story.
Also, I gather her nickname was in Spanish, and was a phrase, not just a word, so I’m equally bemused by the use of the pseudonym.
As the author of this blog post I have two responses to the above comments:
One, “Jalapeno†likes the pet name Jalapeno, it’s a term of endearment. It has nothing to do with hate or insult. Most people who read the story got that.
Two, every person is responsible for his and her own feelings. Nobody can make a person feel “offended†or “struck.†When a person reads a story and certain words trigger an emotional charge within him that is his psychological issue to be worked through and he needs to own that inner reaction. Strong inner reactions are big clues to what needs healing within. Unfortunately, what happens all too soon is that people readily shoot the messenger because they are not aware of their own subconscious patterns that distort the message.
Lana,
A little more plain talk, please. I have no clue what you mean by the second paragraph in your response. Well, okay, I think I do, but I’d be hazarding a guess and guesses are often wrong. What, exactly, do BD and I need to own? What are these “subsconscious patterns that distort the message?”
Wait, let me guess: “Jalapeno’s” story is part of a secret government program that, when sent out into the public domain, triggers all kinds of responses and reveals certain people as…what? Alien beings from outer space? Speaking of owning anything, I think you should own your own discourse and respond in a straightforward manner instead of beating around the bush the way you have.
You haven’t responded to the question: what was the need for those superfluous details about her being Mexican, entered into a supposed marriage of convenience, and having gained some kind of ascension in the U.S?
Like the above readers, I am confused as to the necessity of many of the details in this story, because they seem to only serve as a way of racializing the character according to preconceived stereotypes, instead of providing real context.
In particular, the sentence “Throughout the years Jalapeno got educated and even learned the English language, becoming quite proficient in it” gave me pause, because it is phrased in such a way as if to imply that this is an especially remarkable achievement.
I believe that learning English is a difficult task, but it is also a very necessary survival skill: Therefore, it follows that this challenge would be taken very seriously by an immigrant to the USA. Why *wouldn’t* the woman in the story become proficient in the official language of the country to which she had emigrated?
The implication seems to be that most in her situation lack such initiative, which strikes me as an offensive stereotype denigrating immigrants.
Dear Feral Geographer:
This is Jalapeno’s story. Jalapeno is not prejudice against herself or her own culture. Similarly, the author (me) is not racist against Jalapeno or Mexicans. Your questions are about Jalapeno’s journey and only Jalapeno can answer them.
Lana,
You either don’t get the import of the questions and critiques being raised or you’re willfully ignoring them. None of us are curious about Jalapeno’s story – in fact, we’re seriously questioning why you chose to provide such superfluous details in the first place. And no one is implying that Jalapeno is prejudiced.
We are, however, it’s safe to say, implying (and I would actually, at this point, state it quite directly) that your own latent prejudices are coming to the fore here. I notice that you’ve written about other personal stories in the past – but none of them have quite such problematically placed details like the ones you’ve deployed here.
But I think you’re fully aware of the nature of the critiques we’ve raised here. I, for one, am not buying your sloppy attempts at obfuscation.
Yasmin, I invite you to reread the story and tap into the “connection†between Jalapeno’s citizenship journey and her journey of drinking and driving. I investigated what could happen to a person when she is not a responsible citizen, as I stated in the opening paragraph. If you and your friends (you said “we†in your last comment) don’t like the details of Jalapeno’s journey or you disagree with why they were included then that is your entitlement. Regardless of your opinion(s), the fact remains that this story is about one woman’s journey of becoming a citizen, her life as a citizen and her reality of being faced with possible deportation due to drinking and driving. Most people got that.
Did you even read BD’s comment? You can’t be “deported to Mexico for not being a responsible American citizen.”
To be blunt, your story reeks of the usual xenophobia that accompanies stories about Mexican immigrants in particular. The only twist: this one is disguised as a morality tale.