This is it. I’ve heard and read all I can bear to hear and read about the so-called drinking problems on this campus.

Martin Jischke’s idea about tracking the sale of large alcohol purchases so he can find out where underage drinking happens is stupid. It makes me feel like Big Brother is out there watching me. For some reason, Jischke feels like he has total control over not only the students, but the businesses of Ames.

For example, he wanted the bars to close early during Veishea to curb some of the drinking. How can he expect the bars to comply with this? They are businesses out to make money; they make their money fairly and legally, and he is asking them to close early.

And now Jischke wants to track the purchasers of alcohol, and he expects businesses to comply with this demand? For some reason, alcohol in Ames is now the root of all evil. Everyone seems to forget about personal responsibility.

Alcohol doesn’t do bad things, people do, and if people can’t control their actions when they’re drinking, then they shouldn’t drink. But alcohol is not to blame. Most people drink responsibly and have a great time doing it. But occasionally someone goes overboard and something bad happens, and this emphasizes our “alcohol problems” to people like Jischke, and they feel something drastic needs to change.

I feel bad for the freshman who went to the hospital because he drank too much. But we’ve got to realize it wasn’t alcohol’s fault; it was his fault for drinking that much. Personal responsibility.

“Binge drinking” is another thing I’m sick of hearing about. By definition, “binge” means uncontrollable. So naturally when someone hears the words “binge” and “drinking” put together, they think uncontrollable drinking. But when Harvard did their study and defined binge drinking, they defined it as a man having five drinks in a sitting or a woman having four drinks in a sitting. So if I go somewhere and have five beers in a night, I’m classified as a binge drinker.

Five beers? This does not sound like uncontrollable drinking to me. No wonder 75 percent of all college students are “binge drinkers.” What a bunch of crap! This does not sound to me like the major problem Jischke and some of our other administrators make it out to be. Sounds to me like the man is trying to bring us down.

The bottom line is we’re all in college, we’re all obviously somewhat responsible, intelligent adults, and if we want to drink, it’s our choice. I don’t care if we’re 18 or 24 years old. I don’t care what the law says or what Martin Jischke says, we all can make our own decisions, so let us. It’s our life, not theirs.

Matt McKinney

Junior

Construction engineering