Beer, liquor, wine...it all does the same thing to any normal human being. It provides what professionals and what college students simply call "intoxication."

Intoxication is when you have had enough alcoholic beverages to damage your depth perception, emotional reason, and motor skill abilities. This intoxication is something that I have indulged in many, many times; I have, as is expected, indulged in it more so since I have been to college. I can say, without very much honor, that I have become semi-dependent on the comforts that alcohol tends to bring.

I cannot say to you right now that I condone the abuse of alcohol, but I can say that I certainly have abused it, and the many things that come with it. This may make me a bad person, or whatever you may choose to call it, but at this point I am overwhelmingly unaware and unconcerned with what other people may (and do) think of me.''

The point that I am currently writing to prove is that alcohol is not, has not been, and hopefully never will be, the problem that some people claim it to be. I feel that alcohol is not really a problem, it is a temporary solution for the problems that plague us day in and day out.

The previous statement that I have made may lead you to believe that I am some kind of alcoholic, but I can assure you that this is most definitely not true in any way. I can live without booze, and I have. I can go an extended time without it, as I also have. I personally feel that alc ohol gives the normal person a brief reprieve from what they consider their problems.

A person may go a week without drinking at all, especially in college (during a time of exams, quizzes, speeches, etc.) but they may drink on the weekends. These students usually look forward to their weekend, because they can let loose, and they can dismiss the problems that have stressed them and plagued them throughout the demanding college week. These students usually get inexplicably wasted on the weekend, and you could call this bad, but the aforementioned student is usually ready for the classes and obligations that they face on Monday morning. This is in no way problematic...in my opinion it is fairly therapeautic.

What I'm trying to say throughout all of this rambling and nonsense is that alcohol does not solve problems; it delays them for a short (or semi-long amount of time. if you consider a weekend to be a semi-long amount of time) amount of time, and it helps people to cope at times.

You cannot abuse alcohol to the point that it runs your everyday life...that is simply unacceptable. To let some type of beverage do that to you is absolutely terrible, and you may want to seek help.

I'm not advocating the use of alcohol, or maybe I am., in a way. Alcohol can't always be bad. It can help to delay the onsetting problems of one's life, and by putting these problems off, an awful decision can be extremely delayed. Alcohol often gives a reprieve from the daily grind of ordinary and tantalizing problems, which when delayed can help the aforementioned alcohol "abuser" to put off their problems until a more appropriate time...


....Besides...what kind of problem can one possibly fix at 2 in the morning on a Wednesday night??

A Nation Divided

I was thinking about something pretty deeply this evening while I meandered aimlessly through five hours of work at my respective place of employment, and I have come to two conclusions; a) I'm getting very scared, and b) we're all probably fucked.

You see, I work in a grocery store, and I happen to be a cashier. Sometimes, this store is not overwhelmingly busy and I get an opportunity to glance at the covers of a few popular magazines (People, US Weekly, etc.) and the occasional front page of a few local newspapers. Tonight, during a lull in the amazing action, I took a walk over to the newspaper stand and took a look at the front page of the Post Gazette. I'll be honest, I like to say that I'm pretty interested in current events and that I keep up with them, but this hasn't necessarily been the case since I came home for break from school. This is because when I'm there I have access to the New York Times and USA Today for free everyday, and since I aspire to someday be a competent journalist, I check them out. Since I've come home, I've become very lax about what's going on in the world, and I've begun to live in my little hometown bubble again (except for knowing and loving the fact that the Florida Gators are now the National Champs in the two most popular college sports, and that Manchester United tied New Castle yesterday, and that the Pens have dropped two in a row), so I was plenty shocked when I saw the lead article of the paper. It said that President Bush has vocalized his plans for Iraq to the now Democrat led House and Senate.

These plans, as I could have guessed, involve sending more troops to Iraq, so as to wrap up the proceedings there as quickly as possible and then start to bring home the troops. The Democrats are very much against this, hoping to bring home a few troops as soon as possible, as opposed to sending more forces to war.

I can't say that I'm educated enough on all of this (sadly) to have a definitive opinion on what is right and what is wrong, and what should and ultimately will happen. This isn't what I'm writing about right now. What I want to address is the fear that has risen in me at finally realizing that our country is split more or less in half. The Democrats and Republicans can't seem to agree on anything, and this is extremely frightening. We live in the UNITED States of America, not the DIVIDED; this badgering of one party against the other seems to solve very little if anything, and it can't be healthy for the present or the future directions that this country is haphazardly headed in. I know that they call these parties the left and the right for a reason, but aren't both arms linked to one body? We are, last time I checked one nation, and I've heard too many times to count the slogan "United we stand, divided we fall," and if we don't unite on at least some things very soon, things will fall apart, and I really think that Chinua Achebe was trying to say something.

The bottom line is that we are involved in a war, for better or worse, and our involvement has ended many lives, and doubtless by the time something happens, more will be lost. They are being lost for something bigger and more powerful than the elephants and donkeys fierce rivalries and sudden refusals to even compromise.

So, I'm terribly frightened by the current events, and if it wasn't so intriguing, significant and gut-wrenching, I wouldn't follow them...I would just crawl back into my little hometown hole, where it doesn't seem like politics and government are such a battle, and we aren't all unfathomably fucked to somehow suffer the consequences of grown men and women fighting over a sandbox.