Regarding the DWI-related death of 8-year-old Patricia Burgdoff:

When will our government and judicial system wake up? Perhaps when some drunken idiot takes the life of one of their family members. Until we create laws that hold people accountable for their actions, we’ll continue to read horror stories like this one. If you get behind the wheel of an automobile after drinking and take someone’s life, you should be charged with murder! You should spend the rest of your life behind bars.

What right does this person have to be walking free and be with his family for Christmas? To make things even more absurd, I turn to the Area News section today and see that a man is being held in a Davidson County detention center with a bond of more than $1 million! Are you kidding me? He didn’t even take anyone’s life. Maybe if this accident had occurred in a different county, this guy would still be behind bars.

This could have been one of my children or one of yours. It could have been one of your grandchildren. I don’t know how I could live if something that terrible happened to one of my girls. We all need to remember this family in our prayers and pray that there be justice.

— Beverly Menius

Rockwell