Hello? Anyone sane out there?
::chirp chip::
::sai::
I just sent the following editorial off to the local newspaper. Probably just shot to hell any chance I may have had with getting on with them as copy editor, but screw it. I was pissed off.
***
The new year is off to another drunken roaring start in Nevada County. On the front page of The Union Jan 1, 2008 we have a very pretty color picture of a Bloody Mary, decorated with all kinds of yummy veggies and billed as "Hair of the Dog." (Or, more accurately, though pointedly ignored: "How to Self- Medicate Those Annoying Withdrawal Symptoms of Excessive Drinking"). The article goes on to glorify excessive alcohol consumption as "real drinkers" (translate: "alcohol dependent persons") explain how they treat their withdrawal symptoms. Chugging down more alcohol first thing in the morning is all it takes to, as one woman quoted puts it, make you "all better". Wow. That's awesome. I'm pretty sure after reading Robyn Moormeister's glowing review of the glamorous drinking life no one is going to readily connect that the only difference between those shaky early morning boozers and the shaky junkie tying off his arm for his next fix, is that the boozer's drug of choice is *legal*. Well, that and the fact that alcohol causes a much greater amount of damage to one's body than heroin, and is implicated in more violent crimes than heroin at a rate I'd have to pull out my resources to quote exactly but trust me, it's astronomical.
And you know, maybe no one should give a rat's arse what happens to chronic consumers of legal drugs (that is, alcohol). Maybe we can turn away and conclude that that's just between the drinker and his liver, except that sharing the front page of the very same copy of The Union we have an article about a truck crashing out of control into someone's yard and destroying the victim's only means of transportation. The drunken driver ran away from the scene of the crime because he was "scared". (So I guess maybe alcohol isn't so much "liquid courage" as "liquid ass-hat", but I digress...)
In the Police Blotter in the same issue we have no less than five arrests involving alcohol. Okay, one of those was a bar fight, but it's safe to assume that alcohol was involved. For that matter it's possible, even likely, that the other assault arrests reported were alcohol fueled, but since that wasn't the reason for the arrests it isn't mentioned.
And then hidden away back on page A6 we read about a drunken driver killing five people in Toledo, Ohio. Just to recap in case someone was busy mixing up a Bloody Mary and missed this article, among the dead in that drunken slaughter were Jordan Griffin, age 10, Vadi Griffin, age 2 months, Lacie Burkman, age 7, and Haley Burkman, age 10.
So other than the mind-numbing level of hypocrisy we see in this first Union of the New Year, what's my problem with all this? It's the mixed message we are sending our children, our teenagers in particular. We are telling them that drinking to excess (not just drinking -- but drinking to excess) is perfectly cool because the worst thing that can happen is a little hangover which is readily treated with more alcohol.
It's been roundly declared that War on Drugs has failed miserably. More kids are using drugs, and using "harder" drugs, at a younger and younger age every year. Maybe we should have been focusing more on the first drug most of us encounter in our lives. But that will never happen. Because the "grown-ups" will never let go of it. As long as we continue to glorify drinking, and ignore and minimize its cost to society, it will remain the invisible killer that it is. All we will see are pretty pictures of the easy fix.
*****
At least that was kind of cathartic.
Now what was I going to do with the rest of this year again...?
::sai::
I just sent the following editorial off to the local newspaper. Probably just shot to hell any chance I may have had with getting on with them as copy editor, but screw it. I was pissed off.
***
The new year is off to another drunken roaring start in Nevada County. On the front page of The Union Jan 1, 2008 we have a very pretty color picture of a Bloody Mary, decorated with all kinds of yummy veggies and billed as "Hair of the Dog." (Or, more accurately, though pointedly ignored: "How to Self- Medicate Those Annoying Withdrawal Symptoms of Excessive Drinking"). The article goes on to glorify excessive alcohol consumption as "real drinkers" (translate: "alcohol dependent persons") explain how they treat their withdrawal symptoms. Chugging down more alcohol first thing in the morning is all it takes to, as one woman quoted puts it, make you "all better". Wow. That's awesome. I'm pretty sure after reading Robyn Moormeister's glowing review of the glamorous drinking life no one is going to readily connect that the only difference between those shaky early morning boozers and the shaky junkie tying off his arm for his next fix, is that the boozer's drug of choice is *legal*. Well, that and the fact that alcohol causes a much greater amount of damage to one's body than heroin, and is implicated in more violent crimes than heroin at a rate I'd have to pull out my resources to quote exactly but trust me, it's astronomical.
And you know, maybe no one should give a rat's arse what happens to chronic consumers of legal drugs (that is, alcohol). Maybe we can turn away and conclude that that's just between the drinker and his liver, except that sharing the front page of the very same copy of The Union we have an article about a truck crashing out of control into someone's yard and destroying the victim's only means of transportation. The drunken driver ran away from the scene of the crime because he was "scared". (So I guess maybe alcohol isn't so much "liquid courage" as "liquid ass-hat", but I digress...)
In the Police Blotter in the same issue we have no less than five arrests involving alcohol. Okay, one of those was a bar fight, but it's safe to assume that alcohol was involved. For that matter it's possible, even likely, that the other assault arrests reported were alcohol fueled, but since that wasn't the reason for the arrests it isn't mentioned.
And then hidden away back on page A6 we read about a drunken driver killing five people in Toledo, Ohio. Just to recap in case someone was busy mixing up a Bloody Mary and missed this article, among the dead in that drunken slaughter were Jordan Griffin, age 10, Vadi Griffin, age 2 months, Lacie Burkman, age 7, and Haley Burkman, age 10.
So other than the mind-numbing level of hypocrisy we see in this first Union of the New Year, what's my problem with all this? It's the mixed message we are sending our children, our teenagers in particular. We are telling them that drinking to excess (not just drinking -- but drinking to excess) is perfectly cool because the worst thing that can happen is a little hangover which is readily treated with more alcohol.
It's been roundly declared that War on Drugs has failed miserably. More kids are using drugs, and using "harder" drugs, at a younger and younger age every year. Maybe we should have been focusing more on the first drug most of us encounter in our lives. But that will never happen. Because the "grown-ups" will never let go of it. As long as we continue to glorify drinking, and ignore and minimize its cost to society, it will remain the invisible killer that it is. All we will see are pretty pictures of the easy fix.
*****
At least that was kind of cathartic.
Now what was I going to do with the rest of this year again...?