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Prohibition ended over 80 years ago

May 3, 2014
Dan Carpenter

Dan Carpenter

OPINION By SLO COUNCILMAN DAN CARPENTER

Madam Mayor and Mr. Vice-President – Prohibition ended over 80 years ago.

The Mayor along with Cal Poly vice-president of student affairs have asked bars to stop opening early on commencement day. This is the mayor’s request, not the city’s and certainly not mine.

Our “leaders” should stop interfering with personal choice in the consumption of a product that is legally served in our community.

It’s most unfortunate that over-consumption is all too prevalent in the lifestyle of many students who pass through SLO. However, if these students are willing to expose this lack of self-control resulting in a “drunk in public” or “driving under the influence,” then it’s imperative that law enforcement have zero tolerance and promptly escort them to our county jail.That will have a more positive effect on the long-term drinking problem in our community than “asking” bars not to open early.

If Cal Poly has problems with “unruly behavior” during graduation then breathalyze each student as they enter the stadium. If under the influence insist that they leave immediately. Imagine the disappointment mom, dad, and other relatives will have when their graduate is excluded.

A final lesson in accountability could be the best gift from our “leaders” as they exit our city. Please avoid the obvious temptation to put the behavior of graduating students on the backs of bar owners. When is our government going to stop nannying its citizens and force them to take personal responsibility? Maybe when society sees the value in individuals reaping the consequences of their actions.


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Announce that you’re running for mayor, Dan! I am so terribly tired of this incompetent wasted paycheck that goes by the name of Jan Marx!


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This whole thing has nothing to do with students getting intoxicated. It has to do with:


1.) Marx running her mouth for political gain.


2.) Cal Poly covering its backside.


If Marx/Cal Poly were serious they would have coordinated with the bar owners in private (not that it would have helped as they’ll just drink elsewhere) and they WOULD keep drunks from entering Poly Stadium.


Carpenter is right, THAT would have an impact. This window-dressing crap is nothing but a waste.


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Who needs to start drinking at 6 a.m. on graduation day? The very image suggests an addicted, addle-brained fool. Facilitated by bars opening at 6 a.m.


Maybe Dan has a good idea: breathalyze everybody, make the thousands of good kids be punished this way because of a few soused apples. That’s a really good police state solution. Thanks Dan for making clear the authoritarian belly that underlies your “libertarian” front.


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That is ridiculous. He is simply saying that people should be held accountable for what they do, the actual crimes they commit which victimize others, not what they MIGHT do or what you or anyone else thinks might make them more likely to do it. So, IF the problem is students going to graduation drunk and the school wants to prevent that and has a policy against it, then THAT is the rule that the student is violating and if they are SERIOUS about it then they need to back up their rule. Perhaps he’s giving them a recommendation, but more likely he’s just calling them on their bluff.


And it is not your business who needs or does not need to start drinking at 6am and since you don’t know their circumstances the fact that you think that the image suggest such a thing merely shows that you prejudge people and have no problem passing rules or laws based on that prejudgment.


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What does that have to do with the graduation ceremony?????


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In addition to the comments herein-responsible bartenders can stop serving a sloshed patron. Waitresses delivering drinks know who has had too much and say “it looks like you’ve had enough”.


If one of our family members gets killed by one of these drunk college students on the way to graduation, asking the bar tender and waitress to draw some lines won’t seem like such a big deal.


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Amen.


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Thank You Dan !!!


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Thank you Mr. Carpenter. I agree!


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Please, it’s always been about CONTROL, Dan. Why are we forced to wear seat belts and helmets (when riding)? Oh, sure, there are some great (sacred cow) arguments for why a certain behavior should be encouraged, but in the end, it’s just control… for the greater good, no doubt.


Rather than focus on personal responsibility and consequences (something elected politicians and un-elected bureaucrats do not have to worry about), we’re just told to shut up, get in line, and do not ask any questions. Well, we’re well along that path.


Well written piece, I only hope there’s enough people to see the “narration” that’s being forced on us (nationally, as well as locally) and see through it.


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Seat belts, before shoulder straps, killed people, especially those installed in back seats. Helmet laws on the other hand were the brain child of the insurance industry along side of the motorcycle helmet manufacturers; a handshake that was based more on profits then safety.


Is it control? Only to those who are uncontrollable. To the rest of us it is a measure of safety from those who cannot, or will not, control their actions while putting the rest of us at risk. I shudder to think about driving our roadways without drinking and driving laws in place, wow!


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Drinking and driving laws, since their inception have not reduced alcohol related driving fatalities one single crummy %. If you come across anything that insists there has been a reduction, note that they give a baseline year just a few years behind the year they are claiming the success.


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Never said it did, what I was implying was that without those laws discouraging folks to do so, more would. I’m sorry, I should have been more clear on that.


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What does that have to do with the graduation ceremony?????


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Very well said. My vote is for Dan Carpenter for our next Mayor. It certainly would be nice to someone in that position who represents the people instead of special groups and their money and special interests.


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Huh? Dan loves developers. They aren’t special groups and their money and special interests?


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You’re drinking the koolaid. You have to watch how they walk, not how they talk. All those local politicians who represent themselves as low growth people and environmentalists roll right on over for the really big projects that bring in the property and sales tax dollars, the same projects Dan scrutinizes the most. On the other hand, if you want to build a single spec house, or your own single family home, or add on to a commercial building, those same people will make it so difficult and expensive that many people eventually give up trying altogether


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Yes, at the expense of the public in letting the students get a head start in their drunken stupor.


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So kind of you to “let” people live how they want to live


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mkaney,


I don’t care how they live, if its not at my expense or others that feel that the drunkeness in town, and the ramifications thereof, is enough! Notwithstanding, a possible DUI manslaughter where its punishment is unfortunately after the fact.


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