In Monday's issue of the Alligator, we printed a letter to the editor that we believe needs to be addressed.
While we express sympathy for the horrible accident that the author experienced due to the recklessness of a drunken driver, we believe her conclusions about the point of our editorial are way off.
First, we did not say that nausea and headaches were the only side effects of drinking alcohol. They are mainly characteristic of the morning after you drink.
If our editorial was about the side effects of drinking alcohol, of which we believe a college audience should already be quite aware, we would have included impaired judgment, double vision, dizziness, impaired motor skills, etc.
But that was not the point of our editorial. First, we were commending UF for creating medical amnesty, saying that it was a step in the right direction to reducing alcohol-related illnesses.
If a student is afraid to go to the hospital after having too much to drink, then he or she could be at risk for serious health problems.
Second, we recommended that the stigma surrounding drinking and alcohol needed to be removed by lowering the drinking age and allowing parents to properly teach their kids about the negative effects of alcohol.
We believe that if students can learn at an earlier age what effects alcohol can have on their bodies, accidents like the author's could be reduced. It would be foolish to think that people would never drink and drive again.
We do not see how lowering the drinking age would increase the number of drunken drivers. The author did not mention in her letter the age of the driver who injured her. However, whether the driver was 18 or 25, it would not make the point of our article any less relevant.
Drinking and driving is certainly a serious problem among adults and teenagers. But that is another issue entirely from what we presented.
Horrible accidents like the one experienced by the author has and always will be the consequence of people drinking irresponsibly. However, she is comparing apples with oranges.
The Alligator is not trying to be "the cool big brother" for our readers. On our opinions pages, we strive to present well-reasoned arguments for issues of the day.
We do not feel that our readers came away from that particular editorial with the idea that a headache and nausea are the only consequences of consuming alcohol.
This was not part of the argument we were trying to make, and our readers are smart enough to discern our main arguments.
Again, what the author of the letter experienced was horrible, and we hope that no one has to go through that sort of ordeal. But her accusations against the Alligator are unjustified.
