I was very offended by the drinking references in one of the articles in this summer’s Badger Herald.  The article in question was entitled “Take My Advice: Have It Your Way” by Jason Smathers (printed on page 11A). One of the main reasons I was never really excited to go to Madison was the ridiculous amount of binge drinking on campus, but this article does not even present sobriety as a valid lifestyle choice: “If you’ve never drunk before, you’re just going to have to go through the motions until you can handle your liquor.” So, in other words, I have to force myself to drink even if I’m not interested in that culture.

The main message of “do what you want” was all right, but there were three offensive points Smathers made:

First off, Smathers states that anyone reading this article will not be the best. “You don’t need to be the best,” Smathers writes, “If you did, you wouldn’t be reading this column.”  On the contrary, the intellectuals of this campus are the ones likely to read the entire paper cover to cover and less dedicated people will probably skip over garbage like this article.  I am not saying that I am anywhere near the best, but I want to succeed.

Smathers should not be telling freshmen to only take 12 credits a semester and never push for more.  If you never push yourself, you will never achieve your potential.

Secondly, at the bottom of the first column, he insults all Badger mothers by insinuating that if they tell their kid not to drink they may be drunk themselves: “Anyone who tells you [the college student] otherwise is either a drunk or your mother.  Or both.”  Not funny.

Finally, and most importantly, is the drinking issue: “Let’s get this straight — you’re going to drink.  If you think you won’t you are lying to yourself.”  I feel sick when I even see overage people drink, and I know I won’t drink. Period.  I am not a liar. I have high moral standards.  I am legal.  I will not drink.  I am not a liar.  Just because he has never surrounded himself with dedicated scholars like my friends and me doesn’t mean that true teetotalers do not exist.

Thank you for reading my concerns, and I hope I never read another article as offensive as this one.  I hope that the views of non-drinkers will be expressed more in this newspaper in the future.

Debby Unger ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in biology, physics and applied mathematics, physics and engineering.