Alcohol Schmalcohol

Why Do Humans Drink? I don't like the Reasons

I have to get something off my chest.

I do not like booze! It makes me mad, sometimes.

I do not drink it, full disclosure, you should know. I do not see the overall good in it. I do use some mouth wash, which uses some alcohol for mouth cleanliness purposes. Occasionally my very good cook of a wife, or some posh restaurant where I dine may use some alcohol based drink (wine, rum, beer) to cook or bake for seasoning, but the fermented libation part is left out. No booze, just the remaining flavor. Understandable.

The thing that has brought this to the fore recently is another alcohol violation by a college basketball player at my school, Indiana University. Yes, my pleasure and displeasure derived from the fates of the Hoosiers may not be exactly rational a lot of the time, but Indiana basketball is a part of who I am. When they hurt, I hurt too. And they are hurting now, because of stupid reasons of alcohol consumption. And it is not the first time this year!

This is the third time it is affecting the team since February. 2014. Let's check ourselves, people.

IU players? Yes, and everybody else.

Do we need alcohol consumption to enjoy ourselves, to cope? No, I hope not.

I tell you: an emphatic NO. Live your life in a way that you don't rely on it, ok? Especially when it harms those around you. But my thing is, it never helps...

Last school year (2013-14 season), a second year Indiana player (who was underage) got caught drinking and driving after a particular sad loss to arch rival Purdue. This guy, Hanner Mosquera-Perea, was one of the few Indiana big men that could have helped their team perform on the floor better, more consistently. And then he missed games mid-season, thus leading to further team problems, and the squad finished the season 17-15, not even invited to the second tier NIT. Not even the smaller dance; Indiana was seeded 1st in the top tourney the year before! (To top it off, IU administrators decided to not accept even smaller dances i.e. post season tourneys like the CIT or CBI, which is a different bugaboo of mine...I digress).

Hanner drank irresponsibly and illegally, and did not kill or physically harm anyone, as some drunk drivers are wont to do... No harm, no foul, lesson learned. Right?

WRONG! After the underwhelming and disappointing season (returning PG Yogi Ferrell as a freshman had helped the Hoosiers to win the Big Ten title for the first time in years, 2012-2013), just referenced sophomore Point Guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell and new freshman largely contributing SG Stanford Robinson were arrested for underage drinking and forgery of IDs. What?!? Merely two months after Hanner's dopey move? At least it was not during the season, and at least it did not involve a vehicle that becomes a potentially deadly weapon every time operated. But these guys put themselves and their program in jeopardy. Do mistakes lead to a reputation for the team, and thus affect recruiting, which is near everything in college sports? Okay, two strikes, we're still up at bat.

IU got two good recruits in the last few months, the team (minus Hanner for visa problems) go up to Canada in August and gel more as a team. Sober and strong, right? Hope so.

But then comes the post Halloween debacle, the coup de grace-- and it involves two big men, a deadly weapon (a Jeep), illegal consumption of a minor, or two. Indiana cannot afford to lose any tall dudes, because they are short of them in the first place. One last minute recruit for this season (2014-15) that IU pulled in was Emmitt Holt, a 6'7" banger who was thinking of going to prep school this fall instead of a division 1 school like Indiana. But it worked out, hopefully for the benefit of all, despite his youth... Emmitt was another big body meant to shore up an already depleted and weakened front line.

Thought we were progressing in that department,until self-said youngling big recruit Holt, drove his Jeep under the influence of alcohol, then accidentally (how do accidents happen after you drive inebriated? Can a 6th grader answer this for me?) struck other big returning sophomore PF Devin Davis, whom he had just dropped off! Davis, who may or not have been under the influence (also underaged) laid unconscious on the ground after the mishap, apparently suffering a concussion.

The good news? Devin is okay and recovering. Emmitt seems to be okay, legal and school discipline ramifications withstanding. But I reiterate: can we stop "partying", Indiana Hoosiers? Is the alcohol and booze worth sacrificing the goals of your own life, that of playing basketball and succeeding at a great school, and be a student as well?

Have we learned, young students with tremendous athletic gifts?

A. Don't break the law. It exists for a reason, or many reasons.
B. Don't put yourself or others in harm's way.
C. Don't put your immediate desires or weaknesses ahead of your long term goals. And by the way, you only get 4 or 5 years to achieve team and individual goals while in college. Don't blow that away. You are part of a puzzle that literally millions of people are pulling for. Please do not squander that off the court.
D. Don't harm your associates and those who sacrifice and support you by doing foolish things that will harm them, bringing down a whole group, or series of associations and groups (which a major basketball team does).
E. Don't drink booze. And if you do, don't over-do it. And if you over-do it, please have a guard around who will prevent you from making some of the biggest mistakes of your life.

Years ago I was doing CQ (Charge of Quarters) Duty at a US Army barracks. It was the overnight shift which was usually uneventful. Me and another soldier would do routine checks of the barracks and the outside perimeter, which was not in a war zone and no one had weapons issued.

Easy, right? Not when one of our battle buddies was drinking and driving 20 minutes away. So he got busted, did not kill anyone, but we (particularly me) spoke to him as he sobered up and thought about the consequences while waiting for the First Sergeant to come in very unhappily extra early that morning. Leadership in these cases get calls at all times: 2:00 am, 3:00 am, 4:00 am, sometimes all of the above. That night it may have happened that way. By the time the First Sergeant finally did arrive (which I was hoping had been sooner), said busted soldier had left our barracks despite our protests to keep vigil on him, sauntering back to a barracks some half mile away.

Jerk. Jerk for driving drunk, jerk for making First Sergeant's night/morning/day miserable, jerk for making me and my cohort stress and scramble and run around after a full night awake and alert doing extra duty, just to finish before a twenty minute drive home to climb hill and dale to get the guy who continued to flaunt orders.

Jerk. Boozed up loser.

Now, I was friends with this guy, but part of my point is that he, as a friend and colleague, did not need this. We didn't. The police didn't. The US Army and tax paying citizen didn't. First Sergeant and his family did not need that. The community nearby did not need this extra threat to their well being. Soldiers exist to protect us, right?

Athletes on scholarship to gain glory and worldly success exist to represent us, and some of that requires good behavior off the court as well as stepping up on the hard wood. There are many parts of the equation of successful student athletes. That is how you get the chance to play in college sports and the school foots the bill. We long time graduates pay in tickets, TV rights and contracts and charitable donations to make this happen. We are part of the whole process.

Learn from mistakes.

And maybe learn this lesson from me:

You, I, they, we, do not need alcohol to have a good time.

And yes, it kills. My high school friend Kelly Chambers did not make it past her freshman year (happened before Christmas, first semester) at IU because a drunk driver smashed her and her mom on the highway. Drunk as a skunk, I hear. Mother and daughter gone in one fateful collision.

Thank goodness Emmitt and Devin did not have anything worse  befall them. For obvious personal reasons of theirs, but there is more to just them involved here. Alumni count on you.

Don't drink to have a good time, this Hoosier alumni pleads.

Sports athlete or not, you do not need it.

Alter your mind? Your senses? You are better than that.

I could give many other experiences against alcohol consumption, from parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, etc.

Bottom line?

It stinks and I am fed up with those who think they need it, or thinking unrealistically that it does no harm.

Every sip harms you. And it ends up harming a lot of others.

Don't believe me?

You're wrong then. Get used to it. But please, get over it. Be better and happier without it.

Join the happy sober club. Having a lot of fun here. Go Hoosiers. Stay safe.

Blog on, EMC.