This is in response to The Post’s article on Monday titled, “Bars a safer bet for those under age 21 in Athens.”
My first question is this: Why are you running this story? At all?
Let me explain: I’m one of those crazy people that stays as far away as he can from the party scene in Athens. I did NOT have a sip of alcohol until after I was 21, and I hated it.
Furthermore, I have witnessed parties where a person of age provided mass amounts to multiple underage drinkers. For instance, a certain post-induction after-party where the Student Senate president (at the time) opened his apartment and his fridge to the 29 new interns who were all freshmen.
I’m not going to bash The Post for writing this article because I’m against drinking. I actually don’t mind people drinking, as long as you’re of age and you don’t yank the fire alarm or drunkenly yak in front of my door.
In fact, those are my only pet peeves about Athens partiers: underage drinkers and those who pull the fire alarm in the middle of the night and yak in front of my door. And roommates of good students who come in the room at 3 a.m. drunk as a skunk and loud, forcing us out of our sleep and into your world of drunken hunger. (I may or may not have experience with this.)
When that No. 1 party-school stuff came out, I was thoroughly embarrassed, knowing that statistic would be all that future employers saw. I thought that, as a university, we would try to avoid that happening again so that our degrees would hold some credibility.
What I get is our news source encouraging those under 21 to drink by showing them how to get away with their crime. Let’s keep that No. 1 party-school ranking, guys.
While we’re at it, let’s tear up our diplomas after graduation and flush them down the toilet because, by then, they’ll be worth less than the paper on which they’re printed.
Instead of publishing their stories and making them out to be survivors of the system, The Post should be admonishing their interviewees for drinking underage. The only face time they should get is their mug shot.
The consumption of alcohol is supposed to be something for which you wait. It makes it that much better, that much more of an accomplishment.
Sure, when I told people that I hadn’t had a sip before I turned 21, I got weird looks. But the fact was, I wasn’t breaking the law on a weekly basis. And when I did have my first sip a few days ago, I took that sip with a sense of pride.
Then, gagging on the alcohol, I washed it down with a can of Brisk Iced Tea and a few mints. The sense of accomplishment I had was worth waiting three years to drink.
Here’s my advice to all underage students that read The Post: The best way to avoid getting caught is to not drink underage. The waiting makes it worth it.
Tom Pinney is a junior studying political science.
