Jennatalia
29-07-2008, 02:36 PM
I'm looking for some advice. Actually, I'm hoping some of you will disagree with me because I want to get as much perspective as possible before I make a decision. Anyway, what would you do in the follow scenario?
Say you have this good friend, the convicted felon. This friend has been convicted for several different crimes, has already had a bunch of DUI's, and is currently on probation and taking alcohol classes. Now, I'll preface this by saying this person has been making some efforts to get their life back on track, they (had) a good steady job, and seemed to be trying to get their shit together - for the most part. Nonetheless, this friend still drinks a bit but seems to be doing better overall. Moving right along...said friend shows up at your house one random Tuesday evening. He didn't call first, which is unusual. It was lucky he even caught you, as apparently he was waiting in the parking lot when you got home. As you park your car and start heading towards your entrance, you hear a car horn beeep beeeep beeeeping behind you obnoxiously. At first you don't even plan to turn around, because you managed to grab a close parking spot that you think the car in front of you had planned to snag.
Finally, as the horn continues to blare, you turn around with your best 'what bitch' face and see your friend sitting with a big grin just honk honk honking the hell away. He proceeds to explain that he had a few drinks with coworkers at a nearby bar, and just decided to stop over while he was in the area. After going inside, talking a bit, and showing him some photos and computer stuff, his normally non-smoking self insists on smoking your cigarettes. He's usually VERY obnoxious even sober, so his behavior outside of the smoking wasn't TOO abnormal. He doesn't seem belligerently drunk when he leaves your house, but then again you're not paying much attention either.
The rest of the next week you hear nothing from your friend. Eventually, you receive a call from his lawyer explaining that he is in jail for getting a DUI after he left your house the other night. The lawyer explains that he refused to take a breathalyser, and that he was in the car alone without any open bottles. He wants you to come to court and testify that your friend wasn't drinking that night.
Would you do it? Okay it's too hard to keep trying to tell the story that way but essentially... your friend has been acting shady since this point when you have contacted them. They will not discuss directly their drinking that night, and even are dishonestly implying that they did not drink at all while they throw you guilt trips about being good friend and testifying for them. Would you "be a good friend" and testify under oath that "we were not drinking that night" even if you felt that your friend was already intoxicated when they arrived at your house? Because I personally don't agree with drinking and driving, I take every measure possible not to ever do it myself, and therefore I have a hard time defending the behavior of someone who not only won't be honest with "his friends" about what he is doing, but is obviously unable to "learn his own lessons" and control his behavior by not putting himself in this position in the first place?
It sure seems to like friend or not, bailing someone out just to save them the responsibility of not having to face the consequences of their actions seems like an immoral way to have to show my loyalty to my friend. Do you agree? Or do I need to get off my moral high horse and help out the homeboy? Yes, this turned into a total rant, sorry. Hopefully it makes some sense, hahahah.
AND WHILE I'M AT IT...How the heck do I get my post to format correctly? When I space it out it just smashes everything together in one big clusterfuck of a post. Do I actually have to go through the effort of writing some stupid html or bb code crap to get the 'enter' key to space my shit out? EW.
Say you have this good friend, the convicted felon. This friend has been convicted for several different crimes, has already had a bunch of DUI's, and is currently on probation and taking alcohol classes. Now, I'll preface this by saying this person has been making some efforts to get their life back on track, they (had) a good steady job, and seemed to be trying to get their shit together - for the most part. Nonetheless, this friend still drinks a bit but seems to be doing better overall. Moving right along...said friend shows up at your house one random Tuesday evening. He didn't call first, which is unusual. It was lucky he even caught you, as apparently he was waiting in the parking lot when you got home. As you park your car and start heading towards your entrance, you hear a car horn beeep beeeep beeeeping behind you obnoxiously. At first you don't even plan to turn around, because you managed to grab a close parking spot that you think the car in front of you had planned to snag.
Finally, as the horn continues to blare, you turn around with your best 'what bitch' face and see your friend sitting with a big grin just honk honk honking the hell away. He proceeds to explain that he had a few drinks with coworkers at a nearby bar, and just decided to stop over while he was in the area. After going inside, talking a bit, and showing him some photos and computer stuff, his normally non-smoking self insists on smoking your cigarettes. He's usually VERY obnoxious even sober, so his behavior outside of the smoking wasn't TOO abnormal. He doesn't seem belligerently drunk when he leaves your house, but then again you're not paying much attention either.
The rest of the next week you hear nothing from your friend. Eventually, you receive a call from his lawyer explaining that he is in jail for getting a DUI after he left your house the other night. The lawyer explains that he refused to take a breathalyser, and that he was in the car alone without any open bottles. He wants you to come to court and testify that your friend wasn't drinking that night.
Would you do it? Okay it's too hard to keep trying to tell the story that way but essentially... your friend has been acting shady since this point when you have contacted them. They will not discuss directly their drinking that night, and even are dishonestly implying that they did not drink at all while they throw you guilt trips about being good friend and testifying for them. Would you "be a good friend" and testify under oath that "we were not drinking that night" even if you felt that your friend was already intoxicated when they arrived at your house? Because I personally don't agree with drinking and driving, I take every measure possible not to ever do it myself, and therefore I have a hard time defending the behavior of someone who not only won't be honest with "his friends" about what he is doing, but is obviously unable to "learn his own lessons" and control his behavior by not putting himself in this position in the first place?
It sure seems to like friend or not, bailing someone out just to save them the responsibility of not having to face the consequences of their actions seems like an immoral way to have to show my loyalty to my friend. Do you agree? Or do I need to get off my moral high horse and help out the homeboy? Yes, this turned into a total rant, sorry. Hopefully it makes some sense, hahahah.
AND WHILE I'M AT IT...How the heck do I get my post to format correctly? When I space it out it just smashes everything together in one big clusterfuck of a post. Do I actually have to go through the effort of writing some stupid html or bb code crap to get the 'enter' key to space my shit out? EW.