College President Puts Failed Amethyst Initiative into Practice

See the old guy with the deranged grin pouring beer down the hot college chick’s throat? He is Robert Paxton, the now-resigned president of Iowa Central Community College, putting the recently announced Amethyst Initiative into practice by preparing these “young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use.” Yes, I'm being facetious.

I am amazed at the sacrifices being made by these stalwart warriors of academia like Mr. Paxton, who will risk career and dignity to make the less cerebral of us aware of how miserably the minimum drinking age limit has failed. Alright, no more jokes.

These higher education leaders have signed their names to a public statement that the 21 year-old drinking age is not working, and, specifically, that it has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking on their campuses… Amethyst Initiative presidents and chancellors call upon elected officials to weigh all the consequences of current alcohol policies and to invite new ideas on how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use. ~ Amethyst Initiative Statement

A previously mentioned, once this picture surfaced Mr. Paxton thought it best to turn in his resignation. Personally I wish he would have kept his job, although he was not a signee this is just as bad a cop-out as the Amethyst Initiative's surrender on the minimum drinking age law. The incident would have made an excellent topic for the “informed and unimpeded debate” that academics of Amethyst Initiative would like to have on the subject.

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In this debate, I wonder what Mr. Paxton would have said about his 19 year-old son who was also in the boat at the time this photo was taken. The one that was charged with a DUI the following morning. His second. I wonder if he would have suggested the minimum age laws drove his son to secretive drinking, or could it have had anything to do with the drunken example he had set for his son earlier in the day?

And on a more personal note, what in the hell was he thinking acting this way and why did he expose his underage son to this environment when he knew the guy was already having problems with alcohol.

I know why. It’s part of our culture; most never even think about the risks involved in drinking and willfully ignore the very negative consequences of our love affair with alcohol. Only his career was ruined, he was lucky not to lose his son to an alcohol related driving accident. This almost blind acceptance of the repercussions of alcohol use is what we should be talking about- not minimum age laws.