The Responsibility Project

1. What's absurd is "That's Absurd"

   The illegality of a parent providing alcohol to a child varies from state to state and it is not always illegal. If you want to know what's absurd, it's America's puritanical attitudes that permits people to carry guns and join the military to kill people yet prohibits them from having a beer on a hot day. Children abuse alcohol because society encourages them to do so by its silly prohibition. We have four children over the age of 20. Each child was exposed to responsible alcohol use beginning at age 15 and none have ever had an interest in excessive use of alcohol in large part because we removed its prohibitive mystique. It never occurred to us to worry about the legality of what we were doing with our children because the only thing that matters was/is their welfare, which remains a parental not a societal responsibility. Further, what society or our neighbors thought of our child rearing capabilities never mattered. Public stupidity and hypocrisy were and remain frequent topics in our home and our children were encouraged to ask questions and think beginning at a very young age not mindlessly follow orders. Your views on alcohol use reflect you’re very negative experiences in life just as our experiences created different less extreme views. I do regret that your experiences were so negative and sympathize with your feelings but have you considered the possibility that your parents drinking in front of you may have had little to do with your prohibitive attitudes, which may have been influenced their abuse of the substance? Most European nations have liberal laws governing the use of alcohol and they have lower rates of abuse than the US but then parents often introduce their children to wine at a young age thereby taking the mystery out of drinking. Prohibition and puritanical attitudes have never had much of an impact on American drug or alcohol use; in fact, they have had quite the opposite effect. Elimination of substance abuse requires education and rational policy and presently, the US has very little of either.

   • Roger H. Werner
   • 3 months, 2 weeks ago

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