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Gee, all this hard work, and yet the young people seem to be able to drink
themselves drunk, smoke themselves silly, and don't even get me started on
their easy ability to obtain any illegal drug they want (if Keith Reitman
is to be believed there is at least one place where they needn't fear
going drug shopping, well they need to fear for their safety, but not
their ability to find contraband).
What a huge waste of energy!
Where are the parents? Both out working sixty hours a week at their jobs to
pay for that $170,000 home? Where are the examples of responsible
drinking? What about a way to drink with older children (and even adults
aged 18-21) so they can learn to appreciate a drink or two in moderation,
instead of sneaking off with their friends in high school or to
near-campus keggers-- places filled with others who know nothing more than
they do about resonsible consumption. How about taking little more
seriously the issue of drunkenness, especially given our car dependency?
Instead of bars with two drink minimums, why do we not have a
drink-maximum on bar patrons?
Personally, the TGIF story reinforces my belief that all this hullaballoo
about IDs just makes life less civil for responsible adults, does nothing
to encourage parents to demonstrate responsible use to their children, and
generally deprives otherwise honest, law-abiding, and good people of their
livelihoods.
I agree that the original restaurant getting busted four times seems a bit
excessive. After the 2nd time if I were them, I wouldn't serve to anyone
(under 150 years of age) without ID, and if I got a single complaint I
would have happily provided a form letter they can send to the Mayor and
their CM about unnecessary minor-buy stings.
And I'm very concerned with the rumor that police can "flash their badge"
and drink free. In fact, as a citizen I consider that a bribe-- a major
ethical breach on both the part of the recipient and the giver. Is our
police force really so corrupt that they can't buy their own drinks to
maintain an appearance of objectivity? When they're done with Biernat will
the Feds be investigating this, too?
Well, here's hoping that while this is obviously a general issue, I've tied
in enough Minneapolis specific-bits to be more than a fig leaf's worth of
on-topic-ness.
Clearly alcohol prohibition for 18-21 year olds isn't working, and the city
should lighten up its enforcement efforts (or target them a bit more
carefully). Policy makers who espouse these policies but bring about no
real change in the proscribed behavior have failed miserably in their
objectives, and should be canned. They bring a return on investment of
ZERO (not including the massive fines they use to pay their own above
average salaries, those don't count). Time for new people to try new
approaches instead of wasting tax dollars harming (otherwise) innocent
people.
And if someone knows of a Minneapolis specific study that shows that
teenage smoking/drinking/drug-use are down as a result of these
enforcement efforts, I'd be glad to stand corrected that these policies
are working. Given the number of Minneapolis kids I see smoking, I'm
pretty skeptical.
- -Michael Libby (Cleveland/North Mpls)
______Michael_C_Libby__{_x_(at)_ichimunki_(dot)_com_}______
| my website: http://www.ichimunki.com/ |
|____ public key at http://www.ichimunki.com/public.key ____|
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