I have never written to a newspaper before; I have never felt the need to do so. However, I was so completely appalled — on a number of different levels — by Keesia Wirt’s column “Think Twice About Taking Veishea Pledge” on September 2, that I was compelled to answer what I find to be unbelievably offensive.

First and most offensive is Ms. Wirt’s cavalier attitude towards alcohol and “college life’s” role in student drinking. The column begins with a description of her “relationship” with alcohol in particular, the details of how she threw up during three consecutive Veisheas. Ah, but these vomiting sessions weren’t bad — they were helpful. “If I had not had those experiences with alcohol, I would never have learned my limit,” she says. What?! Apparently it took her three years to find that limit, and I would question whether she found it yet. By blaming the last episode as something she ate, one would have to wonder if she has.

Then this: “College life is all about living to the extreme and finding moderations that allow you to survive. Once you live life to the edge, then, and only then, do you become responsible.”

Ms. Wirt, that has to be one of the most pretentious and naive ideas I have ever read. College life is NOT about living to the extreme. You do NOT have to life to the edge to become responsible. That is a rationalization for bad behavior, and I simply do not accept it. A responsible life can be lived by treating people with kindness, knowing the difference between right and wrong and doing what’s right. I’m not about to say that I or anyone else should be the judge of what’s right; however, doing anything until it makes you vomit — whether its eat too much, drink too much or induce vomit to lose weight — doesn’t sound right to most people. Again, though, that is up to the individual.

I grant that you may choose to do anything to yourself that you wish. However, I do not feel that it is appropriate for you to seriously advocate “living to the edge” to me and other readers, most of whom are young students. I choose not to drink; you choose to drink.

About this we can agree to disagree. But I think I have found my own way to a responsible life and it didn’t include “living to the edge” or drinking until I vomited. I don’t need your help to live responsibly.

College life is about learning, about meeting new people, experiencing different ideas and about beginning to find your way as an adult. I know drinking occurs at the college level, at the high school level and even at the junior high level. But it is neither the function of the institution nor a requisite of the experience to “live to the extreme.”

If you are saying that we must learn from our mistakes, I agree with that. But it is an absolute fallacy to say that we can learn only through mistakes; “then and only then, do you become responsible.” There are other ways to become responsible than spending weekends bent over a toilet.

“Once you’ve lived life to the edge, then, and only then, do you become responsible.” I assume this means that to be a responsible parent, one must encourage their children to also live on the edge, in order for them to learn their limits. If you become a parent (or are one already), at what age will you provide your son or daughter with a bottle of Jack Daniels and require them to down it, Ms. Wirt, just so they can understand moderation?

I am also disappointed in Ms. Wirt’s lack of will power and self-control to not give up drinking for one weekend in order to save an Iowa State tradition. That seems to me to be extremely selfish. Ms. Wirt’s personal concern with being a scapegoat rather than showing true concern for the victims — both people and business — in the three riots is amazingly self-centered.

Does Ms. Wirt really think that she and her alcohol are more important than Veishea weekend? If so, then I agree with Dr. Jischke; she can have it — her alcohol and her weekend.

To summarize, there are other alternatives to a responsible life other than “living to the edge” and to demand by saying “then and only then” sounds to me like Ms. Wirt is telling me and her readers that there is only one way, her way to be responsible.

To be honest, I do not need advice on how to be responsible from someone who drank until they vomited at all of the past three Veisheas.

Finally, since Ms. Wirt has appointed herself spokesperson for the pro-drinking college crowd, I wonder if she might want to carry her duties out to the fullest extent. It seems to me that the next time a student dies of alcohol poisoning, as happened at Louisiana State University recently and at the University of Iowa in the past couple of years (and will again sometime), I wonder if she might want to call the parents of the deceased and explain what happened.

In fact, why limit this to legal drugs. The next time a person dies of a drug overdose, Ms. Wirt should call them and explain that their son or daughter was “living to the extreme” and “learning his or her limits” — which is what college life is all about — when the cocaine stopped their heart/alcohol saturated the blood causing vital organs to shut down.

Now at least we know the limits of the dead individual, and they’ll never do it again.

That seems to me to be the responsible thing to do. But who am I to say how to be responsible?

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Jeff James

Altoona