By Justin Rebello

There are certain consequences I fear from a night of drinking: hangover, liver failure, saying inappropriate things to inappropriate people. Apparently impeachment is now one of them.

According to last week’s Northeastern News, Andres Vargas allegedly held a party in his Mission Hill apartment on Aug. 14 in which he provided alcohol to minors. Nine Orientation Leaders have already resigned, fearing a worse punishment, and Student Affairs is pressuring Vargas to do the same.

Now forget for a second about Vargas’ standing in the Northeastern community, and let’s cut to the core issues. A student held an off-campus party in which he made alcohol available to minors. That’s the brunt of it, right? That’s the reason he may have to leave his post?

Aren’t there a ton of worse things Vargas could have done? Maybe he was embezzling money, or helped bury a body under the Curry Student Center. Is providing alcohol to minors that bad of a crime?

The problem is with the drinking age. Having to be 21 years of age is outright ludicrous. In a country where I can buy cigarettes, die for my country, star in a porno or play for the Cleveland Cavaliers, why is 21 the appropriate age for drinking? Why not change the drinking age to 18, where it belongs, and simply do a better job of regulating? Hold stricter standards for people between ages 18 and 21. Say, an 18-year-old can only purchase a limited amount of alcohol, and enforce a zero-tolerance drunk driving policy where the driver has to have a much lower BAC than the current norm.

Would it be that difficult? I don’t think so, but then it’s easier for the higher authority to select an unfair and downright silly mandate for drinking that’s done nothing to impair underage people’s access to alcohol.

Now this is going to disappoint all you MADD supporters out there. Drinking isn’t as dangerous as you’d like to think. There’s nothing wrong with sitting around with your buddies and drinking a few beers. There are plenty of other worse activities you could be doing. In moderation, like anything else, alcohol is okay.

Of course college students don’t drink in moderation. We do keg stands, and make up ludicrous games like beer pong or flip cup designed to get us drunker faster. We drink for competition.

The problem is that ever since we hit puberty (or junior high, whichever came first) we have been bombarded by anti-drinking ads from teachers, parents, DARE programs and after school specials telling us every conceivable danger of drinking, trying desperately to scare us into a life of chocolate milk.

Since all we know about alcohol is the ill effects, we come to college with a bit of a chip on our shoulders and decide to drink as much as possible as fast as possible. In France, where kids are offered a glass of wine pretty much on their way out of the womb, binge drinking is at a minimum. The education, or miseducation of alcohol to our youths, seems hell-bent on scaring the bejesus out of kids at the sight of a beer bottle. It’s alright to drink, as long as you keep it down and don’t drive. What’s wrong with teaching that?

Going back to Vargas, this whole ordeal might make sense to me if Vargas hadn’t been throwing this party off campus. If the party went down in West Village or in Krentzman Quad, then of course the university has every right to make a stink. But what does OSCCR have to do with anything I do off campus? And please close the book on that whole “protecting their image” garbage. This university’s image was tarnished already by the school making no effort to stand up for its students, and punishing us because the entire city of Boston got a bit wild after the Super Bowl. That image is long gone.

In terms of image, as far as I know, Vargas has done a decent job in his office, hasn’t abused his power to my knowledge, and yet this horrifyingly insignificant happening could get him booted from office. I’m wondering at what point do Vargas’ off-campus activities affect his standing as SGA President. What if he gets a speeding ticket? What if he cuts the tag off a mattress? What if he wears white after Labor Day?

Don’t even give me that, “The SGA President should be setting an example.” First of all, I didn’t even know there was an SGA President. I didn’t vote in an election. I wasn’t even aware there was an election.

At gunpoint, I’d be hard-pressed to even tell you what SGA stands for. How is Vargas suddenly supposed to be my role model? Believe me, Vargas’ choices on how he spends a Saturday night have absolutely no bearing on me or anyone else that holds the slightest iota of independent thought.

Besides, and I’m sure all the underage students can attest to this, isn’t it a lot cooler that your president would make a beer run for you? Hell, on those grounds alone, I’d re-elect him.

— Justin Rebello can be reached at [email protected].