“You’re not going out tonight? Why don’t you try and be fun? Why are you so boring?”

In this environment, and in many others, alcohol is treated as a good. I question that. I in no way aim to condemn everyone who drinks, but I do ask for people to listen and be aware that something that may permeate society is not unequivocally good.

How do we all reconcile that each year more than 600,000 students ages 18-24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking? That 90 percent of acquaintance rape and sexual assault on campuses involves the use of alcohol by the assailant, victim or both? That many surveyed UW-Madison students of color reported conscious attempts to avoid State Street and Langdon Street for fear of harassment?

I know alcohol does not make someone commit these crimes. But can you really say it’s not a factor?

How am I supposed to reconcile that alcoholism wrecks families, that lives are over before they even start?

I’ve come to a point where I see there are people, good people, who can control their drinking behavior. And there are other people, also good people, who cannot. Not everyone fits the description of an addict, someone who is “lying in the street, smells like alcohol and is in the gutter,” as Glass explained.