Re: Old Topic...Re-Discovered - The Punchline

[Robert Hoffmann <escape@alt-escape.com>]

At 11:49 PM 1/22/99 -0600, you wrote:
>Sorry Gary, my response was really to Phil.  I didn't see your post.  I
>agree that alcohol and drug use consititue a major threat to the lives of
>young people.  I believe it was a 20/20 news cast last week which pointed
>out students continued binge drinking even immediately after it caused the
>death of a young college student whom many of them knew.  

Let's keep 20/20 out of serious discussions.  This is not serious
journalism.  They try to rehabilitate the despicable (Leona Helmsley) and
the brain-dead (Dan Quayle).  They are a great cheerleader for drugs
(giving us practically weekly stories on the latest, greatest drug to treat
everything from depression to premature ejaculation to neurosis in pets)
and the medical industry (attempting to rehabilitate liposuction for even
the slightest bulge that the narcissistic cannot abide).  Otherwise, a
bunch of alarmist claptrap.  I'd take it nearly as seriously if you had
said "The National Inquirer had reported...."

>While there are
>many in Moscow who abhor what "illegal drugs" can do to youth, many of those
>same folks will allow underage drinking in their own homes, even providing
>alcohol to teen agers who are not their own children. When parents say, "I
>give it to them in my home so I know they aren't out driving," may be an
>acceptable excuse for your own kids--I don't think so, though; but it is
>totally unacceptable to use as an excuse with someone else's teen agers.

There seems to be a belief that the longer we keep kids away from alcohol,
the safer they will be.  Studies show that nothing can be further from the
truth.  When you dam the river, the dam will release a flood when it
bursts.  Youngsters who are allowed to have a sip from their parents' beer
& wine are less likely to see alcohol as a forbidden fruit that they should
gorge on.

Case in point:  I recall talking to a Swiss high school student who had
explained to his American counterparts that in Switzerland, he could walk
into any bar and be served alcohol, and walk into any store and carry out
beer without a problem.  The American students imagined that he must spend
the greater part of the week totally drunk.  Nothing could be further from
the truth.  He wondered why a person would want to spend most of their
waking hours drunk.

The rate of alcoholism in West Germany (before reunification) was among the
lowest in the Western world, in spite of very liberal policies on alcohol
sales.

Not to say that I'd like to see age prohibitions on alcohol eliminated in
one fell swoop tomorrow--that would be dynamiting the dam.  A draw-down
would make a lot more sense.

As to the parents who were asking which teachers would be chaperoning the
senior kegger--they must have been sharpening their minds with weekly
episodes of 20/20.
Robert Hoffmann                      817 S. Adams
Alt-Escape Adventures                Moscow, ID  83843  USA
http://www.alt-escape.com            Phone: (208) 883-0642
	             Fax:   (208) 883-8545