Showing Drunk People to Kids

I caught just a few minutes of The O’Reilly Factor tonight, but those moments gave me a lot of food for thought. Dennis Miller was Bill’s guest and the topic of discussion was the wildness and orgies and intoxication of college spring break. Keep in mind their discussion was littered with pics of scantily clad co-eds doing beer bongs and shots. Miller said he took his 16 year old to Austin, TX for the kid’s high school spring break. Not to let the son get drunk, but in order to expose him to alcohol consumption. My first question was that he took him to Austin-a kick butt city, yes, but not exactly the hot spot for college students nationwide to travel to for their own spring break. So, Miller took the kid into throngs of drunks all partying it up. At first I was a little appalled, but his logic made good sense.(I paraphrase here), “In two years, my son will be going on spring break himself. I want him to see this through sober eyes and when I may still have a little inffluence over him.”
Wow. Just wow! Think about it-most people who saw spring break forthe first time did it with beer goggles wrapped around their eyes. But Miller’s son got to see the drunken craziness through the eyes of a 16 year old sober kid-a kid who had the protection of a parent nearby. And that’s gotta make some sort of impression. There aren’t too many people who would walk onto Bourbon Street for the first time, sober as a judge, and see partiers with piss and vomit all over their clothes and think, “Wow! I want to do that!” Same story for people having to do the “half-carry” of their pals down the street. Drunks, when seen through sober eyes, are really, really pathetic. And, while upon first hearing, I thought Miller’s idea wasn’t so hot, when it all sank in, I think the man gave his kid a lesson he couldn’t have gotten anywhere else.