So I did a quick survey of my friends on Myspace. I didn’t ask them anything because I know the answer from just knowing them as friends. You see, apart from George Takei, Penn & Teller and the College Group, for the most part, I know all of my Myspace friends.
Out of 100 friends, (plus or minus a two friend margin of error), 84 of them, if offered a drink at a party, would accept. Its an unscientific poll, but these people have or would drink alcohol. 75% of my friends are under 21, and if they got in a car drunk, they could face serious consequences.
For the record, I am not judging anyone for drinking or not drinking. It’s your life. Who am I to tell you what to do with it. Second, I don’t necessarily agree with the 26th Amendment. If you don’t know what it is, look it up, or if your smart enough, guess. You’re probably right.
Ok, now that that’s out of the way, I need to tell you something. I’m 20 years old, and I’ve never had a drink.
I don’t look forward to my 21st birthday, I have no plans to go out and get hammered, and frankly, it doesn’t bother me one bit.
But here’s the thing that made me think of all of this. On April 8, a 17-year-old student from Newbury Park High School died in a suspected drunk driving accident on PCH.
Cody James Murphy was a junior and played on the football team. He had everything going for him, and one slip-up turned all the “atta-boys” into tears.
If we hammer into people’s heads that they need to drop the keys if they’ve had a drink, then maybe when the situation comes, people will make a good call to a friend instead of a bad call, to get behind the wheel.
While I was driving home late the other night, I got an awkward feeling. Almost like an uneasy, unnerving sort-of feeling in the gut of my stomach.
I realized that Murphy was the same age as my brother, and I don’t know if my brother would drink and drive.
This kid probably thought there was nothing wrong with what was going on, and what if someone I know would think the same thing?
Parents and schools are not doing enough to really help students understand that they are coming to the age where their decisions begin to make real impact.
The passengers in the car are lucky to be alive, and thank God that they are. But now, they’ve left the mental stage of being kids, and are now real adults. They’ve made adult decisions before, but now they’ve encountered an adult consequence.
This is not the time to condemn the parents or the school, or the driver, but to rally around everyone who was affected and surround them with the support they need to get through this hard time.
But at the same time, we need to remember what can happen, and make sure that things like this never happen again.
I don’t drink, but I don’t agree with the legal drinking age, and here’s why.
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), over 94 percent of twelfth graders and almost 68 percent of eighth graders report that alcohol is “very easy” or “fairly easy” to get.
A lot of people think that by the time you’ve turned 18, most people will have had enough alcohol at one point to be considered drunk.
Also by the time you’re 18, you’ve already decided whether or not you’re going to drink. No one waits until they’re 21 to make that decision.
And honestly, if you want to drink, you aren’t going to be stopped by the 21 rule. At 18, you are old enough to die for our freedom in Iraq, Afghanistan or wherever, but you’re not old enough to have a glass of wine with dinner?
When we can’t control our own decisions, we need to already have in place a system to prevent us from making bad decisions.
Drinking and driving accidents make up for way too many deaths in the US. Every single one of those is preventable. How horrible is that?
All those people died, because someone wasn’t being smart.
MADD suggests you designate a driver, and that allows people to enjoy drinking, while still being safe.
On that note, if you’ve read this far, you have just earned a free ride home. If you EVER need it, call someone. No questions asked, no awkward glances ever, and no reason to bring it up again ever.
Loosing a friend is devastating. Especially if there was something you could do to prevent it.
Drunk driving is preventable, so its time to replace the candlelight vigil and the “extra grief counselors” on campus, with a DD or a phone call to a friend.
