The Minnesota Daily
TomAlciere
November 21, 2005
ALCOHOL
Why the drinking laws are unfair
I have a dream that my two children will not be judged by the date of
their birth.
Let me respond to the Nov. 14 Daily column "Making underage drinking
an issue," in which Danielle Mabry thinks the victims of
discrimination are too stupid to see the flaw in her reasoning, that
"breaking the law is showing a huge lack of maturity and responsible
drinking."
It's irresponsible and immature to drink underage because it's
illegal, as it well should be, because people under 21 are so immature
and irresponsible. That writer cites a dollar figure pulled from thin
air. You cannot put a dollar figure on suicides. Fetal alcohol syndrome
is no excuse to forbid men under 21 to drink while women over 21 are
not forbidden. It's just easier to pick on people under 21.
In a free country, the citizens decide what to drink.
Convicted felons are forbidden to drink because of the crime they
committed, but the drinking age is imposed on persons who did not
commit crime.
As for violent crimes, punish the criminals, not innocent people.
If statistics go up, the hate-mongering Mothers Against Drunk Driving
bigots will say this proves how irresponsible young people are, and if
statistics go down, they'll say this proves the drinking age is
working. Statistics don't drink and drive, individuals do, and they
need to be punished for endangering the lives of innocent people.
On April 9, 2005, some high school students in Seminole County, Fla.,
reported a 49-year-old limo driver on prom night. It was her third time
getting busted for drunken driving. She can still buy all the booze she
wants, but they can't legally buy any despite being far more
responsible. When high school graduates gather at a kegger, they
don't stand around puzzling, "Gee, Sherlock, why do you suppose
members of the Minnesota Legislature would rather impose the drinking
age on us than impose tougher drunken driving laws upon themselves?"
"Duh, I dunno, Watson. I got accepted at a very demanding college,
but I'm too stupid to figure that out. I suppose we could ask
criminals like state Rep. Tom Rukavina."
"You mean the guy who got busted July 31, 2004, and blew a 0.15?"
"Yeah. And why do you suppose the cops would rather go on party
patrol and arrest us than go on DWI patrol and arrest each other?"
"Duh, that's another toughie. I suppose we could ask the head of
the St. Paul police union, who got arrested for DWI on June 16, 2000,
or the Minneapolis cop who got arrested Dec. 11, 2002, for DWI,
criminal threatening and other charges, who blew a 0.24. Or we could
ask that Minneapolis cop who drove drunk and crashed Oct. 16, 2004, or
the one who got arrested his second time for DWI on Aug. 19, 2005, and
blew a 0.25.
"Or we could ask the Detroit cop who drove drunk and killed
19-year-old Marvin Shaina on Jan. 30, 2005, and only got probation, or
the Chicago cop who drove drunk, ran a red light and killed two high
school boys in Tinley Park, Ill., on Feb. 12, 2005, or the Sacramento,
Calif., cop who allegedly drove drunk, and killed 13-year-old Michael
Ramirez in Elk Grove, Calif., on May 31, 2005."
Before reporting an underage drinking party, remember that the beer
will fall into the hands of cops.
I have a dream that my two children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the date of their birth but by the content
of their character
Tom Alciere is a resident of Nashua, N.H. Please send comments to
let...@mndaily.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2005 The Minnesota Daily
Guardenman
"TomAlciere" <TomAl...@TomAlciere.com> wrote in message
news:1132624308.0...@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/11/21/66250
November 21, 2005
ALCOHOL
Why the drinking laws are unfair
I have a dream that my two children will not be judged by the date of
their birth.
That doesn't make them unfair. It just means you dream about getting your
chilern drunk.
Let me respond to the Nov. 14 Daily column "Making underage drinking
an issue," in which Danielle Mabry thinks the victims of
discrimination are too stupid to see the flaw in her reasoning, that
"breaking the law is showing a huge lack of maturity and responsible
drinking."
It's irresponsible and immature to drink underage because it's
illegal, as it well should be, because people under 21 are so immature
and irresponsible. That writer cites a dollar figure pulled from thin
air. You cannot put a dollar figure on suicides. Fetal alcohol syndrome
is no excuse to forbid men under 21 to drink while women over 21 are
not forbidden. It's just easier to pick on people under 21.
In a free country, the citizens decide what to drink.
When you find this dream country of yours move there and tells us all about
it.
Lets hope they have more character than their father.
Day Brown
> Why the drinking laws are unfair
> I have a dream that my two children will not be judged by the date of
> their birth.
>
> That doesn't make them unfair. It just means you dream about getting your
> chilern drunk.
folks would gather at the farm of the father of the bride for a blast.
I also remember grown cousins saying: "Hey kid, commere." then he'd
pour rum, whiskey, or whatever into my bottle of soda. Tasted good. Us
kids would get smashed. They thot it was funny, the moms were pissed.
but- none of us had to drive home drunk. we werent old enough to drive.
and- by the time we were, we already knew what alcohol would do.
and- of the many large farm families I knew, with 9-15 kids, I Dont
*EVER* remember seeing a drunken brawl. I dont ever remember seeing a
drunk. Not until I grew up and lived in the city.
The French seem to have the same idea, serving their kids wine at
feasts. They dont seem to have the same rate of drunks either.
Frank Clarke
<TU6hf.368$4O5.20...@typhoon.cei.net>
"Parental Involvement"! I think you may be onto something, Day ;-)
(change Arabic number to Roman numeral to email)
Day Brown
> "Parental Involvement"! I think you may be onto something, Day ;-)
of the farm reception, clan involvement. We kids got schittfaced,
but there was no place to go other than the farm yard and barn.
Course, now that nuclear families are 1-2 kids, the clan is maybe
a dozen people, and most of them havta fly in for thanxgiving.
unlike the farm families, they dont really know each other.
For thousands of years, people in Europe brewed beer, and even the
kids drank it every day- you cant get cholera from drinking beer.
You'd think some of us anyway, would be adapted to alcohol by now.
TomAl...@tomalciere.com
drive.
and- by the time we were, we already knew what alcohol would do.
and- of the many large farm families I knew, with 9-15 kids
"Oh, no, we can't allow that in our society, because we plow the snow
onto the sidewalks to make it as difficult as possible to walk home."
Gee, you think maybe they could stop plowing snow onto the sidewalks?
"Oh, no, the big oil companies wouldn't like that."