Too soon.......

STUDIO 48 -- Not much going on today. I can’t help but mention the tragedy that happened early Sunday morning in Russell Hall. On one hand, I feel terrible for that guy, his family and all his friends and hall mates. On the other, I can’t help but think... how irresponsible can a single group of people be? The guy (apparently) died of alcohol poisoning. You have to drink a whole friggin’ lot to get alcohol poisoning. What were the other people he was with thinking? They must have also been “tipsy” (or “hammered”, or “wasted”... etc) to not think: “Oh, my God. He’s pretty drunk. Maybe one of us should make sure he’s ok”. --or-- “We should take him to the hospital”.
It is an unfortunate turn of events, to say the least. I can’t help but worry that the new Athens-Clarke policy regarding underage consumption might have played a role in the group opting out a trip to the hospital. The policy now states that those who are underage caught drinking or drunk are no longer slapped on the wrist with a meaningless citation, but are now taken promptly to the Athens-Clarke Jail. Hey guys... a night in jail sucks and having to call your parents and tell them how you screwed up sucks worse, but both pale in comparison to untimely death. I hope that this terrible incident will wake up some individuals who abuse alcohol so that they can see how truly dangerous it can be. Please try to be responsible in the decisions that you make. I have been around people before who abuse alcohol on a fairly regular basis and I even consider some of them to be my friends. If I ever saw one of them in a situation where they had so much to drink that they needed medical attention, fear of punishment from the law would be the last thing on my mind.
Please try to take care of yourself and those around you. This is not the kind of story that I want to see on the front cover of the Red & Black. I want to see more in-depth, hard-hitting journalism like the article about the ‘Brumby Butt’. Anyway........