Anyone for frog legs?
Sometimes you have to wonder if today's adults were ever young.
The College of New Jersey has banned alcohol on campus during three days of Senior Week when the graduates-to-be (almost all now 21 or older) traditionally return to their freshman dormitories and, among other activities, drink legally if they wish.
The ban is just a peachy idea - now the young people bent on drinking a snootful to celebrate their rite of passage will have to pile into cars and drive to off-campus locations, drink their snootful and endanger public safety when they drive home.
Not outraged yet? After all, alcohol is banned in dorms 362 days a year and all the new policy does is extend that policy to the other three days. (This argument is known as the boiling frog approach to the issue.)
To be fair, the article talks about a student who died in one of the dorms (not during Senior Week) after a night of drinking and partying - he fell down a trash chute. The college's legal geniuses probably figured that a policy condoning alcohol, every for three days, opened up liability issues.
But try this: "Alonso said that choice is no longer up to students because their bags will be searched before entering the dormitories and they will be kicked out of the event if caught with alcohol in the residence halls."
Yep, the authorities will be violating young people's private belongings to make sure they're not intending to partake in a legal activity. Not only are they banning alcohol, not only are they not going to look the other way, but they will rifle through the personal belongings of anyone entering the "party" to make sure they don't plan to party too hardy.
And the geniuses will at one point come to the conclusion that - since the death occurred in March, not during Senior Week in May - it might be wise to have search-and-seizure stations year-round. We don't need no steenking Fourth Amendment, we're in charge here, lemme see yer bag, punk.
What the hell. When the new graduates step out into the real world, they'll be asked to pee in a bottle before their wage-slave job offer becomes effective, relinquish the privacy of their bodies and bags before they board an airplane, snuff out their cigarettes before they leave the house (if smoking in their homes is still legal) ... they may as well get used to their personal behavior being policed. Just shut up, hand over the booze, and have fun, kids.
The College of New Jersey has banned alcohol on campus during three days of Senior Week when the graduates-to-be (almost all now 21 or older) traditionally return to their freshman dormitories and, among other activities, drink legally if they wish.
The ban is just a peachy idea - now the young people bent on drinking a snootful to celebrate their rite of passage will have to pile into cars and drive to off-campus locations, drink their snootful and endanger public safety when they drive home.
Not outraged yet? After all, alcohol is banned in dorms 362 days a year and all the new policy does is extend that policy to the other three days. (This argument is known as the boiling frog approach to the issue.)
To be fair, the article talks about a student who died in one of the dorms (not during Senior Week) after a night of drinking and partying - he fell down a trash chute. The college's legal geniuses probably figured that a policy condoning alcohol, every for three days, opened up liability issues.
But try this: "Alonso said that choice is no longer up to students because their bags will be searched before entering the dormitories and they will be kicked out of the event if caught with alcohol in the residence halls."
Yep, the authorities will be violating young people's private belongings to make sure they're not intending to partake in a legal activity. Not only are they banning alcohol, not only are they not going to look the other way, but they will rifle through the personal belongings of anyone entering the "party" to make sure they don't plan to party too hardy.
And the geniuses will at one point come to the conclusion that - since the death occurred in March, not during Senior Week in May - it might be wise to have search-and-seizure stations year-round. We don't need no steenking Fourth Amendment, we're in charge here, lemme see yer bag, punk.
What the hell. When the new graduates step out into the real world, they'll be asked to pee in a bottle before their wage-slave job offer becomes effective, relinquish the privacy of their bodies and bags before they board an airplane, snuff out their cigarettes before they leave the house (if smoking in their homes is still legal) ... they may as well get used to their personal behavior being policed. Just shut up, hand over the booze, and have fun, kids.
posted by B.W. Richardson at
6:21 AM
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