What's the drinking age for ignorance?
It might be shocking to some, but "puking your stomach out" or "waking up with one of the worst headaches you have ever had" does not even begin to cover the potential consequences of irresponsible alcohol consumption.
It's no wonder there are so many incidents of binge-drinking and alcohol-related emergencies at Shands at UF; the Student Body is reading articles in the Alligator that imply puking and headaches are the only consequences of drinking irresponsibly.
On Feb. 25, 2006, I was a 19-year-old sophomore at UF when my car was hit head-on by another student who was driving while severely intoxicated.
Eleven days later, I woke up from a coma that was the result of a right-side brain injury to a broken right femur, a crushed right heel, torn ligaments in my left knee and a broken left elbow and forearm. All of these injuries helped remove the stigma of alcohol consumption for me as a 19-year-old, but certainly a headache or puking will have the same impact, right?
Drinking is a privilege, a responsibility and potentially very dangerous.
Here's an idea for the Alligator Editorial Board: Do a little research before you write to an audience that is mostly underage college students about the "pleasure and pain" of alcohol consumption and how the drinking age should be lowered.
My little brother, a freshman at UF this year, read this editorial and knew better. But what about everyone else?
Grow up, Alligator. Stop trying to be "the cool big brother," and stop serving ignorance.
