Letter to the Editor: Alcohol related holidays like Unofficial should not be celebrated

By Kathryn L. Wright

I must take issue with the editorial column of early March 2017, in which the editor stated that Unofficial is a day that “brings out the best in people” and “is a day of glee and optimism”. A number of University students and possible outsiders have paid with their lives for this most hideous of holidays.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died on our roads and highways–more than all Americans who have succumbed in our wars because of alcohol. The commercials on television promoting alcohol only show beautiful women and handsome men living the high life in various settings and bars, spreading the lie that you too can enjoy life to the fullest like these people if you will only let go and indulge. These commercials do no show the reality of this bondage of thousands who end up in treatment centers and gutters– their families being torn apart by this intoxicant.
I have a personal interest in alcohol addiction and its terrible aftermath. I was four years old when my oldest brother died in a car accident in which alcohol was the cause . Two other individuals died in that accident along with my brother. I was cheated out of getting to know him- –a young man in which there was so much promise.
I, therefore, choose not to indulge in a product which has ruined so many lives. I hope that you and the editors will issue a statement about this “holiday” on campus, no longer rationalizing or justifying what takes place here at that time.
Thank you.
Kathryn is a retired University faculty member.