Underage drinking is a pretty bad idea

Friday, December 4, 2009

So, what can you say about 26 noodniks who decided to hold an underage drinking party – apparently at a Bedford martial arts studio smack on Route 101 – in the wake of all the recent publicity about how police are cracking down on (duh) underage drinking parties?

Well, let’s see ... They’re idiots?

Yes, on at least two levels: 1. If you’re underage, what are you doing drinking? The law is clear: You get to drink when you’re 21.

2. If you’re going to hold an underage drinking party in an enclosed building, don’t go outside and stand in the parking lot and drink where police can see you. How stupid can you be?

Well, pretty stupid, really. The idea that these 26 ninnies really thought that drinking illegally was a good plan simply boggles the mind. And what were they going to do afterwards? Drive home? Right. Brilliant.

And what does one say about the teenage girl, apparently a student at the karate studio, who has been charged with facilitating this idiotic party? Well, it’s a dumb idea from the start, but then to hold it at a place where she was, apparently, trusted?

It looks as if the karate studio had nothing to do with this; it was just, allegedly, this teenage girl who thought up the entire brilliant idea perhaps as a way to give thanks for the fact that her mentors at the studio have taught her karate, if not common sense.

Now she’s busted, several other not-very-bright teenagers are charged, and the karate studio has egg upon its face if for no other reason than it put its faith in someone who, apparently, didn’t deserve it.

What is really irritating is that at least a couple of people of legal drinking age thought it was cool for them to at least participate in, if not facilitate, a party at which, police say, kids as young as 15 were drinking. Hey, dummies, if you’re mature enough at 21 to drink, you should be mature enough to know a stupid idea when you see one. You give the 21-year-old drinking age a bad name. If society based everything it did upon your actions, nobody would get to drink until they’re 30.

Now we know that, sadly, there is a faction – we hope very small – out there that is doing the, “Ah, what’s the big deal? Kids are kids. Why, in my day ...” And, of course, they’re blaming the police for doing their job.

But that faction has as much common sense as the legal drinkers who drank with illegal drinkers. In other words, none.

We applaud the police for making the arrests. They can’t stop these “parties” for occurring but they can, and they did, send a strong message: We won’t tolerate it.

Good for them.