[x1lexure]

See but the thing is Mbriant, most of us live in a community of people. In one way or another everything we do is going to affect someone.

To All-
During my posts I have been focusing mainly on drinking, but in a way what I'm saying relates to alot of the decisions we make. Most of you will agree that drug use is dumb as dirt. (I put alcohol in the same category because to me it is a drug, and should be treated that way.) I also agree on smoking and overeating. But whats different about alcohol is the category it's in. It's a legal drug. Almsot everyone accepts its use as the norm. I just can't see how it's diffrent then any other drug.

 

[kelly]

Quote:

Originally posted by x1lexure I have already made up my mind. Some of you have made comments that making a choice like this is for later on. It's not. I can easily get almost any drug/alcohol/anything I want at school or at a party. That's the problems teens face today.

Every day I face the decision of whether or not to rob a bank. Every day I face the decision of whether or not to murder someone (several someones actually).

These things are illegal. Laws have already been made to make my decision a little easier. If you're confused about your morality or don't feel you're capable of making good decisions, we spend an awful lot of tax dollars creating these laws so that you can get a little help.

You are too young to LEGALLY make the decision to drink. This decision was taken from people under 21 because it was felt by lawmakers (and lobbyists, primarily automotive insurance lobbyists) that someone your age was NOT capable of making a good decision on the matter.

On most days, I don't drink at all, unfortunately. I make that decision on my own every day--without the well intended guidance of a fifteen year old. Sometimes I do choose to drink and will likely continue to do so. Maybe you will too. Many years from now we'll find out. Right now, your opinion is frankly irrelevent.

 

[x1lexure]

Why is it irrelavant? (Not that it matters but Im sixteen.) Because I'm young and stupid or have no expierence in the issue or am I uninformed? Shrinks took into account everything the columbine killers did. They cared what they had to say then. Older People view young persons as ignorant and in-expierenced. Wll we're not. We grew up in age of drugs, sex and rock and roll. Our parents did it, and we saw what they did. We thought we could do the same or at least be able to do the same.

Laws are not what I base my morals on. Knowing that it is illegal does not affect me. What does affect is seeing what the world is doing right now to itself. I'm trying to at least curve it's path.

 

[kelly]

Quote:

Originally posted by x1lexure Knowing that it is illegal does not affect me.

I sincerely hope that as you get older this will become less true. The laws effect us whether we wish them to or not.

Maybe you're unconcerned with the legality of your acts because you are a minor and the full provisions of punishment are not available to you as consequence to your actions. If you drink, you may "get in trouble." Maybe they'll tell your parents. The ADULT who sold you the drink, on the other hand, may well lose his job and be fined heavily. His sentence could even include jail time.

Some people never grow up to make better decisions and it may be true that you make better decisions than some adults. However, it is expected of you to make better decisions more often as you grow older. This is so true that the laws of our country reflect those expectations both in what you are legally allowed to do and in process and sentencing.

 

[x1lexure]

Knowing that it is illegal does not effect me...but I still wouldn't do it. As a component citizen of the U.S. I'm expected to follow the laws. And of course I will, but only to the point where I feel that he law is morally right. I'm not planning on robbing a bank becuase I know stealing is wrong. However I will not be drafted into a war, because I know murder is wrong.

Think about it this way. If I'm living in a period with no laws or government, I'm still bond by something. I still must listen to the law of morals. I'm not going into this further kelly. your making something out of nothing. I know the laws and will follow them and my moral compass.

 

[elnero]

Oh boy, I thought walking down the street and getting preached at by religious fanatics was bad. Now I find a 16 year old with absolutely no experience preaching about the evils of alcohol and trying to save the world on a headphone webboard.

I'm twice your age, I've made good decisions and bad decisions. I've learned a lot of lessons from those decisions. I think the world would be a much better place if people did a lot more learning and a lot less preaching.

On that note I've got the same two words for you as I do for the religious fanatics, can you guess what they are........

 

[00940]

Quote:

Originally posted by x1lexure I have already made up my mind.

me too, don't think this discussion will lead us somwhere

Quote:

Some of you have made comments that making a choice like this is for later on. It's not. I can easily get almost any drug/alcohol/anything I want at school or at a party. That's the problems teens face today

do you think is really new ?, ask your parents... i won't challenge the regulations of the USA, even it probably make alcohol more attractive, the "anti-elderly"attitude.(btw, in belgium the legal age to drink AND drive is 18. it s easy to find alcohol at 16 in a pub, completly impossible to drive. statistics are not worse.) in your case, i can't see the point. you don't drink and don't want the others of your age to drink. so does the State and it tries to enforce its legislation. nothing bad. you're right the others wrong.

Quote:

I'm trying to get people to think abut what they're doing to their bodies/lives. I already no that I will never touch the stuff. I'm not looking for others opinions. I'm trying to get them to think about those opinions. Why they have them and why they keep them. In almost all of your guys posts you hint towards the cons of drinking, but somehow still upstage them with the meager pros. I just don't understand why you do that.

what i do of my life ? i must admit everything is more than allright for me. thanks be to God.

why i do what ? to drink some good stuffs from time to time ? do you have an rationnal explanation for everything ? i drink because i 've never tasted something better than some of the old wines i tried. i drink alcohol because i don't like coke and all these chemical tastes. if you can't understand that alcohol in itself is nothing, that it s that particular wine, or this liquor, or this beer i want, you 'll never understand me

don't take me wrong. i know what are the effects of a dergulated alcohol consumption. i am not stupid, i spent 3 weeks as volunteer in a house for the reinsertion of former alcohol addicts. but the pro exceed from far the cons in my life

 

[Mr.PD]

x1; You say you have already made up your mind. Please be of an open mind. Don't drink, don't smoke and enjoy life. You have every right to do that. Someday you may realize that alcohol is not the evil you believe it to be now without ever touching the stuff. I must agree with you that alcohol is the same as some drugs. Most drugs are much much worse than booze.
I gotta admire your gumption. You have been criticised and demeaned here, yet you perservere. You must be from good stock.

Always remember to keep an open mind

 

[Rizumu]

Quote:

Originally posted by x1lexure I have already made up my mind. ........ I'm trying to get people to think abut what they're doing to their bodies/lives.

That's good you've made up your mind. There is a difference for me, though, if it is legal or illegal. I'm as old as you are, and right now I can safely say I don't ever want to smoke. I don't plan on becoming a drinker either, but until I can walk into a store, show my ID, and legally buy alcohol, I don't have to make that choice. That's me though, and everyone has different morals. You feel that you are able to make that choice now, and choose not to.

Stating your opinions is one thing, though, and saying you don't care what others opinions are and telling them to believe or do differently is another...not everyone appreciates that, and I believe that's why this thread has been cautioned as flame bait.

 

[kelly]

Quote:

Originally posted by Rizumu Stating your opinions is one thing, though, and saying you don't care what others opinions are and telling them to believe or do differently is another...not everyone appreciates that, and I believe that's why this thread has been cautioned as flame bait.

Yup, that's pretty much it. I don't mind that x1lexure chooses not to drink and in fact prefer that he not. Once he is of legal age, I may still take some relief in his decision.

What I dislike is the notion of my choices being condemned. Alcohol has brought far greater pleasures to my life than pains and I am the only person qualified to make such an assertion about my own experiences.

 

[x1lexure]

I'm asking you to contemplate your choice, and why you made it.

 

[kelly]

Quote:

Originally posted by x1lexure I'm asking you to contemplate your choice, and why you made it.

I don't tend to make thoughtless decisions if that is your implication. Are you instead asking me for my reasons to drink?

 

[elipsis]

Quote:

Originally posted by x1lexure Elipsis and what are you drinking? Watered down beer? This is science. After the very first one you'll be acting diffrently. How can you always know you'll never drive well drunk, after the ninth one? You can't tell me that without being mistaken.

Spoken like a person who has never taken a drink.

 

[x1lexure]

Kelly- Yes

Elipsis- Not true. I have.

 

[CaptBubba]

I think that people are taking this issue to be one of absolutes. Does drinking too much destroy people's lives? Of course it does, but there are many more people who use it to relax a little. Saying "Alcohol is bad" or "Alcohol is good" is a vast oversimplification. There has been research that shows medical gains from drinking a glass or two a day, just as there has been research that shows medical problems associated with drinking too much.

Maybe, just maybe, people drink because they like it. It gives them pleasure. They have weighed the pros and cons and have decided that it is a relativly harmless way of having fun. Then there are others who have looked at the very same details and decided the oppisite.

Nothing in this world is pure black or pure white. Heck, it isn't even shades of grey. We live in color, whether we like it or not. What does that mean? It means that if you believe that you are compleatly right in anything, you are mistaken. Something I personally find annoying is somebody assuming that they can predict things that somebody they have never met will do. I have never met elipsis, so I can no more say that he will drive drunk than say he will not drive drunk. I just don't have the authority or information to make that kind of statement, and neither do you.