age 6
Asking Around
"Responsible Drinking"
Jan Travers/Editor
Do You Have The Guts To
Accept Responsibility?
There is a $22 million lawsuit pending in
Pennsylvania courts involving a former Penn State
student at the Altoona campus. After an evening of
drinking at a fraternity party, she attempted to drive
home and had an automobile accident which left her a
paraplegic.
It's not too difficult to see the motive behind
her suit. Here's an 18 year-old woman who knowingly
and illegally drinks. After the accident she wants to be
absolved of her guilt. What better way to do this than
to put the blame on someone else?
What she fails to realize is that she alone is
responsible for her behavior. No one forced her to go
to the party, to drink alcoholic beverages, or to get
behind the wheel ,of an automobile when she was
drunk. True, the first faculty to go when drinking is
judgment, but why didn't she consider how she was
going to get home before she started drinking?
The saddest part of this story, other than the
young woman being a victim of her own deceit, is that
she will probably win her case. Instead of the judicial
system putting the responsibility of this incident on
the accident victim, they will most likely award her a
large settlement. In essence, they will be rewarding her
actions and at the same time allowing her to push her
guilt on someone else.
In recent years, numerous techniques have
been introduced to try to protect us from ourselves--
mandatory jail terms for driving under the influence,
drunk driving education programs, laws making the
host/hostess liable for people drinking in their home,
and random roadblocks checking for drunken drivers.
But these changes alone are not the long term solution
to the problem. Much of the well-meaning legislation
is not addressing the principal problem of the necessity
of the individual acknowledging responsibility for his
actions.
Until there is a change in attitude toward the
social acceptance of intoxication and drunken driving,
all these inovative steps will only serve the symptoms
and not address the cause.
It is time for everybody
responsibility for his actions!
Nick Roslevege
Public Policy
"I fell asleep under the kitchen
table at a party."
to accept
What's the craziest thing you ever did while intoxicated?
Dave Bower
Electrical Engineering
"I returned home from a toga
party wearing only a sheet, not
knowing where my clothes were.
I was greeted at the front door by
my angry mother. I was only 16
at the the time."
Capital Times
Vicki Koon/Managing Editor
Difference Between
Night & Day
HARRY'S BAR, 10 P.M
The atmosphere is dim. Prisms of colored light move
around the room. Music pummels the air. The crowd at the end
of the bar is responding to the music like palm fronds in a
hurricane. The storm eases off occassionally and a calm
breeze moves in.
The bar is covered with glasses of all shapes, bottles,
ashtrays, and elbows. To the left of the bar are little round tables
elbowing for room amongst coiffed and scented bodies. This
group competes with the music in decibel levels.
Waitresses move back and forth from the bar to the
tables, recharging the atmosphere. The sounds mesh together.
The senses are blurred.
HARRY'S BAR, 10 A.M
The bright light looks uncomfortable against the dark
wood walls, the black ceiling, and the deep red carpet.
Disinfectant smells creep from the open doorways of the
restrooms. The bar surface is cleared of all encumbrances, marred
with scratches and burns. The chairs are upside down on the
tables, exposing the naked pedestals to the light. A vacuum
cleaner churns and grates on the air while fermented
odors silently escape from the carpet.
DRINK LOTS OF MILK
TAKE A COLD SHOWER
SIX WAYS TO HANDLE A HAN G OVER
at t
it l / 4 - F LOTS OF FOOD
THE MORNING AFTER DRINK
Sharon Harris
Management
"I ruined a dinner party that I
gave. I was drunk before anyone
arrived and I was dreadfully ill
less than an hour into the party.
The next day I didn't remember a
thing."
Pictures by Sylv
Mar. 18, 'l9B
DRINK LOTS OF COFFEE
YOU WANT NAVV, I'VE
ANOTI lER HAD ENOUGH
bEER ?
aft )
'•-• admit
OR TRY MODERATION
John Larsen
Math/Science
"I banged my head against the
wall several times and I can't
remember why. It didn't hurt at
the time though.