Hail! Hail to the bottle!

To the Gentleman I made eye contact with while walking through the bank parking lot this evening,

I highly suspect you know what I saw - you quickly headed toward the exit of the parking lot soon after you noticed me looking you. I think somewhere in your head, you know what you were doing wasn't quite right. I mean, I totally understand that it's Friday evening, the main part of the work week is over. You looked like you were heading home from the office, still dressed in a button up shirt and tie. But you were already in weekend mode on the inside, taking swigs of beer from an unmistakable Newcastle Ale bottle only moments before you drove off.

As an adult living in the U.S., you have a right to drink alcohol. Drink a little every day. Drink until you pass out every night. Drink on the weekends. Drink to kill yourself tonight with alcohol poisoning. Drink until you kill yourself slowly by destroying your liver first. I really don't care what you do - not that I would choose some of those methods of death. I know firsthand that some aren't so great, but I do have lines where I feel fully justified in having an opinion.

Notice all those deaths... they were all for yourself. If you want to, you can kill yourself with alcohol. You don't have the right to kill anyone else though. Not your wife or ex-wife. Not your children. Not your parents. Not your grandchildren. Luckily no one else appeared to be in the car with you tonight, but you also have no right to kill anyone else that might be on the road that might simply be trying to get home tonight to enjoy their weekend.

I suspect you have a problem with alcohol though. Most people don't find a need to drink a beer in their car while driving the evening & with good reason, it's illegal in the U.S. When I pulled out my phone to take a photo of your license plates, I realized you didn't have any on your tan Toyota Highlander SUV, which was pretty convenient. It felt useless to call the police and mention there was a guy in a tan SUV driving around North Hollywood or maybe even was already on the freeway, drinking beer during Friday rushhour. As a pedestrian, there was no way I was going to keep an eye on your car for long. I hope in time you can get help or at least get some control over your drinking before that bottle causes too many problems for yourself or the others in your life. Hopefully it's not too late.

M