Drinking Age: Sooner or Later

The recent indication that some college presidents would like to opt out of feeling some sense of responsibility for underage drinking on their campuses has led them to the conclusion that if we lower the drinking age we help their problem. Sadly, according to national statistics relating to alcohol related deaths among teens, indications are just the opposite. When the legal age was increased, deaths decreased by nearly 50%. The sudden binge drinking syndrome reported by these presidents would indicate that most schools could do a much better job of teaching science and health than they are. The facts of alcohol poisoning and sudden heart arrest induced by alcohol consumption are simply facts that need to be taught, understood, and hopefully applied to life’s challenging college environments. My personal memories of the back rooms of college fraternities and sororities inviting new freshmen to get an eyeful and belly full of alcohol available to them via pledge week introductions and the promise of great revelry to follow, commends me to regard the challenge to college presidents as simply an issue of confrontation. Several college presidents have taken the first steps on changing such alcohol promoting activities by nullifying the charters of certain fraternities that refuse to comply with lawful alcohol use.
Beyond that, a healthy regard for personal existence remains a stronghold for considering alternatives to the binge initiatives. It is true that some college students are subject to poor choices…they aren’t so smart. It is true that many older and supposedly wiser upperclassmen on college campuses are familiar with methods for coercing and creating environments whereby underclassmen, particularly coeds, are subject to altered judgment and abuse. The presence of date rape drugs are often linked with binge drinking events and those who are affected by them can be males and females. While the threat of alcohol poisoning and the potential for death are constant in a binge drinking environment, even greater complications can occur when drugs are introduced with the beverages consumed.
For those presidents who are cited as “knowing a great deal about these things” it is my judgment, they would pretend to know less than they should know. In an age of frequent legal challenges to those deemed to be negligent in their duties…it would seem that some college presidents might feel a little vulnerable to the free-wheeling antics of some on their campuses and in effect, be wanting to get rid of the potential for their own court appearances on charges of negligence in matters of campus tolerance of abusive patterns of behavior.
The real trouble lies in the desire to retain advertising dollars for college programs submitted to NCAA sports from beer marketers and coddle the frequently well-lubricated alumni who attend college sporting events. It truly is more basically a “like father…like son” equation in most instances. If parents haven’t set the standards any higher than the legal minimums, most kids won’t have much of a chance in the first place. Self-respect, self-preservation, and the basic desire to live in a productive, healthy way should get higher billing as a way to have a good time.
On one occasion, as I presided over the funeral of a victim of a binge drinking event, I was surrounded by a church filled with college age students. I reminded them that they were meant to live and to love and to care about one another. To put oneself in a physical condition that allows you to disregard the life you live, and negates your response to the needs of those around you, also eliminates the possibility of caring about anyone. Choices matter. For a roomful of people to be in such a physical state of intoxication that they did not know or care that they had one among them dying while they walked around his body...should be such a horrific reality in their minds, that it should cause them never to allow themselves to be so callous toward life again...their own or others.
To those college presidents, I simply say, give me a chance and I’ll testify.