Drinking laws don’t stop underage drinking
By T.J. Bruels | Winona

After reading Mr. Galewski’s column recently on the terrible effects of binge drinking in college communities such as Winona, and the police chief’s bid to quell this nasty binge business, I find myself for once in agreement with Galewski and the police chief, albeit only partially, in the fact that this recent binge drinking death and the dozens of the ones already mourned in this community are tragedies in the utmost.

But while they see death alone as the great tragedy, I see it in another place. I see the real tragedy in the fact that current legislation caused or, at the very least, contributed to Jenna Foellmi’s death.
Drinking in some form, especially in the teen to early-20s age range, has been a right of passage for many starting long before the 1789 ratification of the document that would, by 1919, be host to the notorious 18th Amendment, banning happy juice of all sorts.

Unfortunately, as we learned, it is simply not possible to legislate against an activity that is not only so widely accepted, but so widely practiced. If Prohibition taught us one thing, it was that Americans like their booze, and they would resort to being speakeasy criminals just to get a nightcap. We recognized, in 1933, the error of our hasty passage of this somewhat puritanical idea, and repealed it because, put simply, most Americans don’t view drinking as

a moral wrongdoing. While

most of us would agree that drinking isn’t quite as vile and despicable as temperance propogandists might have us believe, we all recognize that irresponsible drinking is a very real problem.

The American answer to this question of responsibility has been the criminalization of boozing under the age of 21. As a matter of fact, Congress has hijacked the power, given to states by the 10th Amendment, to set drinking laws through financial blackmail. The federal government has vowed to withhold millions of dollars per year in transportation funding from any state that legalizes drinking under the age of 21.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked so far.

For years, the Mothers Against Drunk Driving have searched in vain for a way to stop the tragedies caused by drunken mistakes. Neither I, nor anyone else, could claim to understand the pain of a mother, like many of the mothers in MADD, whose child was stolen by a cruel twist of fate in the form a drunken swerve on the road. I can’t question the absolute recklessness and disregard presented by drunk driving. In this, the mission of MADD is nothing short of admirable.

Unfortunately, they have missed their mark.

In the process of lobbying for laws to stop drunk driving, they made the mistake of supporting laws that have, in effect, promoted a secret culture of adolescent drinking. Certainly, with all the questionable lobbyists jogging around Capitol Hill, its important that we have something as pure and decent as mothers fighting to protect children. But we need these brave women, whose powerful perspectives help shape anti-drinking legislation, to take a realistic approach to promoting responsible drinking rather than the puritanical one that we ought to ban it altogether.

The unfortunate truth is that, despite its mild illegality, underage drinking doesn’t just occur; it is absolutely ubiquitous. We see it in college towns, rural townships, suburban cul-de-sacs and urban slums. And unfortunately, when this adolescent drinking occurs, it can’t be in the presence of parents because endless attempts to quash this teenage gut-rotting have driven it further underground.

Now, instead of Mom and Dad being able to show little Johnny that its OK to have one or maybe two drinks with dinner, Johnny gets his first experience with the devil’s brew at the kegger down the block. Kids, not being able to justify leaving the car at the party and explain why they took a cab instead, are driving their little cars on a road that’s almost as likely to get them taken to the hospital or the morgue as it is to get them home safely.

The answer to stopping this irresponsible alcohol consumption and the tragedies that it causes is not to drive it further off the radar. It is not to take away the authority of the parents to set their own standards for acceptable behavior and teach kids how to take their intoxicants responsibly. Let society set the standards and let us not forget that our laws didn’t save Jenna Foellmi.

When you finish reading this, I want you to say three prayers. Say one for Jenna; say one for her mother; then, say one for our lawmakers because the rising death toll says their laws aren’t working, and I’m sick of kids dying.

Bruels is a student at Winona Senior High, and, for the record, his parents don’t agree with his column.

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