Should We Be Appalled?

I remember my first can of beer I ever had, outside my parents house. It was that nasty azz Busch beer..You know the beer that actually gave you that bad beer face.. I remember my first glass of hard liquor, it was Jim Beam followed by coca cola (I would have put coke down, but with Yeager around). I remember the first time I actually got crap faced and I damn sure remember my first hang over. My age, 18. I was 18 years old when all of those thing happened to me, already had sex as young as 14. Although I didn't know what the hell I was doing, I had the time part done pact, being a youngster at all. But at 18 years of age, my life experiences and failure were beginning to start. Emancipated and feeling like I can do any darn thing I wanted once I left my parents house at 3 a.m. in the morning, and knowing I was out on my own, flipping my own dime and paying for my own entertainment is what most young people want. There wasn't anything you can tell me, outside of being some drill instructor for 8 weeks and an additional 40 weeks for my skill training. In fact, that is where I got my first can of nasty azz busch beer and my first shot of Jim Beam. And boy did they continue to flow and flow until there was one man left at the bar. Usually this person, was trying to be faithful to Molly Sue back at Bumcrap, Nevada, while the rest of us was trying to make a name for ourselves with the local females in Anniston, Alabama.

In a nutshell, I did what millions of kids do when they leave home for college or go to the military. I drank, and I thank the Lord (sorry Yeager, I know your side of aisle don't appreciate a higher deity) for only having hang overs than being a fatality on the road or being the cause of someone else losing their life. I'm also thankful, that I did not drink myself to such a stupor that I was not able to wake up ever again.

Unfortunately, there are parents who send their kids off to college to seek higher education and the hopes of a better life for their kids end in tragedy that did not have to happen. You see some of us in this country are appalled at the twenty two -hundred or so deaths from our three year tour in Iraq. But no-one has uttered a word, worn pink or picketted outside a VA hospital for the 1400 deaths per year of college students..young students, who were our countries future are gone because they chose to exercise their independence of being 18 - 22 or 23 adults. 1400 deaths of kids who did not volunteer to serve their country, nevered fired a shot and never had to do a push up for discipline reasons are gone. The War on Terrorism in the Iraqi Theater started three years ago, and in the three years we lost more than 2272 or 4 young people, either through accidents or in battle, but in three years since 2001, 3200 young deaths are alcohol related, especially to binging.

No outcry, no Bush lied, people died cries. I don't expect to hear anyone say that Bush hates young people or in this matter one word from Kennedy in regard to drunk driving.

But we're appalled at kids dying overseas....

but not here.

Source Opinion Story: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=1085909&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312