Couple of things
- The downtown question remains unanswered apparently, but in very promising news a group of bar owners expressed their concerns and shared their policies with the Campus/Community Alcohol Coalition.
- But, speaking of the Campus/Community Alcohol Coalition, its chairman, Pat Daugherty, wrongly criticizes Athens Banner-Herald executive editor Jason Winders. For one thing, Daugherty disputes Winders's assertion that overconsumption of alcohol is a 'rite of passage' and that it's not really 'normal' and only appears 'normal' because we say it's 'normal.' Instead, it's implied that he advocates for no consumption of alcohol, praising the new 'alcohol-free' zones for Georgia football Saturdays. However, that misses the point because the real problem in this country - as with most issues - is this is a societal problem. We have such a juvenille, 'either-or' approach to alcohol we, inadvertantly, foster this climate which encourages excessive drinking by youth. If we actually approached it as a responsible citizenry and said 'you know what, it's OK to have two drinks' and encourage moderation rather than respond with reactionary and faulty plans (like alcohol-free tailgating zones or making closing time earlier and earlier), you might see some progress.
- Of course, as I've said before ... we really don't have this rampant drinking problem that folks - a majority of whom never visit downtown after, say, 9 p.m. - claim we have.
- Finally, this letter by the father of James Cole, the 18-year-old who was murdered three years ago in downtown Athens-Clarke County will only stoke the fires. It's a tragedy this young man lost his life in such a senseless act, but we shouldn't blame the bars for this death ... why not try blaming the bastards who shot your son?
- In the 'this-ain't-good-news-at-all' department, Big Papi has an irregular heartbeat. Best wishes to him as things go from absolutely horrible to unimaginably bad for the Red Sox.
- The Wife and I enjoy being members of First Baptist Church of Athens. Reason No. 4,271? Our pastor dropped a Black-Eyed Peas reference in the middle of his last sermon ... without any introductory statement like 'There's a popular hip-hop group out today called the Black-Eyed Peas ...' No sir, he just put that out there as if everyone was familiar with them. Awesome.
- The folks at Athens Politics have been doing an excellent job in facilitating the discussion between supporters of E.H. Culpepper's campaign and Doug McKillip's campaign. There's a good bit of accusations being thrown around involving back taxes involving Culpepper, and folks are really worked up about it. Count me as someone who completely isn't. I've tried to come down somewhere over that issue, and it's just not worth it. It's relatively minor in the grand scheme of things and is ultimately preventing both sides from talking about, you know, the actual issues.
- If you're out and about this afternoon, consider heading on over to the 'ole musee for Figgie's@Five. It's $5 and William Tonks, a local folk rock musician, will be performing.
- But, speaking of the Campus/Community Alcohol Coalition, its chairman, Pat Daugherty, wrongly criticizes Athens Banner-Herald executive editor Jason Winders. For one thing, Daugherty disputes Winders's assertion that overconsumption of alcohol is a 'rite of passage' and that it's not really 'normal' and only appears 'normal' because we say it's 'normal.' Instead, it's implied that he advocates for no consumption of alcohol, praising the new 'alcohol-free' zones for Georgia football Saturdays. However, that misses the point because the real problem in this country - as with most issues - is this is a societal problem. We have such a juvenille, 'either-or' approach to alcohol we, inadvertantly, foster this climate which encourages excessive drinking by youth. If we actually approached it as a responsible citizenry and said 'you know what, it's OK to have two drinks' and encourage moderation rather than respond with reactionary and faulty plans (like alcohol-free tailgating zones or making closing time earlier and earlier), you might see some progress.
- Of course, as I've said before ... we really don't have this rampant drinking problem that folks - a majority of whom never visit downtown after, say, 9 p.m. - claim we have.
- Finally, this letter by the father of James Cole, the 18-year-old who was murdered three years ago in downtown Athens-Clarke County will only stoke the fires. It's a tragedy this young man lost his life in such a senseless act, but we shouldn't blame the bars for this death ... why not try blaming the bastards who shot your son?
- In the 'this-ain't-good-news-at-all' department, Big Papi has an irregular heartbeat. Best wishes to him as things go from absolutely horrible to unimaginably bad for the Red Sox.
- The Wife and I enjoy being members of First Baptist Church of Athens. Reason No. 4,271? Our pastor dropped a Black-Eyed Peas reference in the middle of his last sermon ... without any introductory statement like 'There's a popular hip-hop group out today called the Black-Eyed Peas ...' No sir, he just put that out there as if everyone was familiar with them. Awesome.
- The folks at Athens Politics have been doing an excellent job in facilitating the discussion between supporters of E.H. Culpepper's campaign and Doug McKillip's campaign. There's a good bit of accusations being thrown around involving back taxes involving Culpepper, and folks are really worked up about it. Count me as someone who completely isn't. I've tried to come down somewhere over that issue, and it's just not worth it. It's relatively minor in the grand scheme of things and is ultimately preventing both sides from talking about, you know, the actual issues.
- If you're out and about this afternoon, consider heading on over to the 'ole musee for Figgie's@Five. It's $5 and William Tonks, a local folk rock musician, will be performing.
posted by Jmac at 6:59 AM
3 Comments:
Thanks Ned.
I don't know if I agree with your assertion that students under 21 because they feel the laws are 'unjust' ... I think they drink that much because of a variety of factors ranging from the standard peer pressure to lack of proper respect for alcohol to it being, well, just kinda fun in their eyes. I'm sure a good number of them think the law stinks because they want to be able to buy drinks somewhere, but there it's a bigger issue (not that I'm implying you don't get that by any means).
I think one of the bigger problems, as one of the bar owners admitted in the story, was that sometimes it's just really hard to distinguish what is and what isn't a fake ID. Some of those things look pretty good and legit, and once they get in the door they're going to get served.
Putting police in the bars during peak capacity times with spot ID checks might be effective, as is the bar owners continuing this dialogue with the local community about how they can best enforce the existing laws.
It's going to be a tough nut to crack for folks who are serious about addressing this issue because if a 19-year-old wants to drink, he or she is going to find a way to get a drink - be it downtown at a bar or by going to someone's house who has alcohol.
What the h is the "free certification program for bar employees developed by Georgia Tech to identify underage people" mentioned in the article?
I seriously doubt the whole "fake IDs are getting better" response. I can understand that most doormen are pressed for time and are in usually darker environments, but fake IDs are largely ridiculously easy to spot, and the odds of figuring out one is fake become close to .999 if you just ask someone to remove it from the wallet or purse pocket. Novelty IDs, the ones that probably give people the most trouble, are able to duplicate the holographic effects, but not on the proper backgrounds (meaning, you'd have to know what a Kentucky or Florida license looks like to know that ain't it). And the telltale scratching on the backs is a clear giveaway... all the more reason to have the person remove it. Time-consuming, but is prevention of a criminal act worth it? I mean, certain places use metal detectors to prevent criminal acts, and that's time-consuming. How criminal do we take underage consumption to be if we are all up in arms that it produces a rape culture (!!), but then are not interested in, therefore, putting a cost-effective but time-consuming end to it?
The problem is not so much with actual fraudulent or fake IDs, but with the use of actual IDs, duplicates or just loaned ones. Again, in a dark, hurried situation, many people look alike, wear very similar clothes, wear similar hair, so on. Oftentimes the people are related. This is something we can't solve short of asking doormen to be that much more diligent...
For me, I will say that "rampant" may be a bit too much, but it is definitely a problem of great significance. I think Winders has a decent classical perspective on the issue: it is a rite of passage for people to be arrested for their immature crimes. I know I've been fortunate to not have been arrested when I did really stupid, youthful stuff, but not everyone is, and fortune is an excellent teacher to us all whether we care to admit it or not. Some people need to be taught the hard way, for themselves, for the benefit of their friends, for the benefit of family. That means time spent in detention, money in fines and fees, education in rehabilitation programs. But, some people do not learn, yet. I am not sure what sort of other solution will work. My impression is that the courts are doing what they can with the resources they have.
At any rate, I think it is a significant problem because comparing the number of people guilty of alcohol offenses to the number of students is not a good indication overall of where the culture stands. Johnathan, you measured the situation on the basis of how many were arrested. I take it the presumption is that these were individuals who had done something significant enough to warrant being arrested—with the corollary being that the other underage kids who were not arrested were in violation of the drinking law, but were not bringing hell with them. They were insignificant drunks. not tearing up stuff or punching people or being jerks. Is this a fair assessment of your thought in drawing out the numbers?
But this isn't always the case: there is a limited number of police officers available to make these arrests, write the reports, transport the offenders, control the situations. Once the arrests start to increase in number, that takes officers off the road who would have been patrolling for the (supposedly; this is what people say, afterall) more heinous or dangerous crimes. It also prevents them from arresting more individuals who are underage and obviously so. So, there is an approachable limit to the number of arrests that can reasonably happen in one night. This is a roundabout way of saying that to measure the "drinking problem" on the basis of the number of arrests is not to be accurate with regard to just how much hell is being wrought out there. Projection on the basis of what we know is not always a bad thing. The numbers are high because there are a lot of people out there committing criminal acts involving alcohol. UGAPD had a very large number of arrests last Spring, and from my look over the numbers my take would be that upwards of 80% of these arrests involved alcohol. Part of that can be attributed to the policy changes that took effect in January. Another part I'd attribute to more and more people becoming drunk when they should not and drawing attention to themselves.
And people are drawing attention to themselves by shedding clothes in public places, hitting other people, falling asleep on sidewalks, becoming sick and throwing up in their rooms or in the bathrooms, &tc. The drunken behavior is worse, despite the kids supposedly being more mature.
Okay, simply, my concern is that we shouldn't just take the alcohol problem to be way overstated by the University. I think they have in mind the problem of the image, and the way the image is glorified. I think the policies will not work, because the policies are not, themselves, working at the right symbolic level. But criticism of the awkwardness of the University's policies, or of people who don't truly know the problem alcohol creates in our community because they've gone to bed early, should not dismiss that not only is there a problem, but this problem is not solely the result of bad individual choices, or immature underage behaviors. We have adults who cannot handle their liquor. And we have this because there is something in the general distribution of the culture of Athens that is obsessed with alcohol, consuming it directly at the bars or indirectly through railing against it.
I agree, we should be creating responsible citizens, as you say, Johnathan. But this means radically reshaping the culture, not punishing or rehabilitating individuals.
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