In just about every way possible, the American culture continues to tell young people that to (1) have fun, (2) be cool, (3)) act sophisticated, you need alcohol.
It used to be that you used to need a cigarette too, but the tobacco farmers didn’t grease enough palms, so today you just need the booze.
There are some responsible parties who are trying to change the perception, but let’s be honest, they are swimming upstream.
Carol Seager is in charge of health services at the University of Kansas and in a recent Associate Press story, she explained that college students, who are required to get alcohol abuse education, are not taking it seriously.
According to Seager, last year the college had just under 1,000 students whose enrollments were put on hold because they had not completed mandated alcohol education training.
And as of the recent report, she noted that only 259 of 4,375 students who were required to take the course had actually completed it.
Even if they attend the required classes, the health director acknowledged, “it’s too early to tell if the classes are meeting the goal of helping to reduce underage drinking.”
Maybe it would help if parents and other responsible adults would set better examples.
We can only hope.
— Chuck Smith