I am sick and tired of the press devoting so much time and space to this sudden social crisis of binge drinking on college campuses. The statistics may be up in the past few years, but the environment in college towns has been the same for decades.

The difference is that now, the 40 to 75 percent of college students who drank 10 to 30 years ago are trying to tell us we can’t handle the freedoms they once abused.

College students drink, often too much, and they often suffer the consequences of the stupidity that arises from drinking.

But who is to blame for these actions? Not the “adults” buying alcohol to spread their disorder, not society as a whole that forces us to buy their products and take up its addictions, not the government and its institutions which failed to shelter us from such evil, but rather the individual.

Unfortunately, in today’s society of passing the blame through lawsuits and government hand-holding, it’s quite a thought isn’t it?

Alcohol is illegal for minors to possess or consume. It is illegal for Americans of any age to be intoxicated or to consume alcohol in a public place. I have been educated about the dangers of alcohol since the fourth grade.

Beyond these measures, there is nothing we can do (this side of the iron curtain) which can keep people from drinking five drinks or a fifth of vodka in one sitting should they feel such urges.

Alcohol is not good for you; it does ruin lives and it can kill you, but so can smoking, driving a car or running with scissors. Fortunately, what makes America great is the ability to take such risks in order to actually live your life.

People are dying from alcohol abuse, and they have been, and that is terrible. But people are dying from car accidents every day, but no one wants to be forced to ride a bike everywhere they go.

If alcohol is such a problem, bring back prohibition. Until then, please replace all the redundant newspaper stories about alcohol with Family Circus re-runs or Canadian football box scores, because honestly, I find either one more interesting than breaking news on the obvious.

Todd M. Buelow

Senior

Electrical engineering