LA culture needs drinking awareness
I had the unpleasant task of paying my respects to the family of a former high school student this past weekend. “Smokey” DeVille celebrated the end of LSU summer school with a 4.0, drifted into an alcoholic haze from which he could not waken, and was pronounced DOA at Our Lady of the Lake hospital, leaving literally hundreds of his friends, relatives, and acquaintances in mourning.
While rereading through the July 10th edition of The Reveille today I ran across the article by Cory Ohlendorf entitled “Measuring fun in shot glasses” and marveled that nothing had changed since I was an undergraduate at LSU some 30 years ago.
Our culture, apparently, is still one of drinking to excess over any (and every) excuse. As a result, another of our friends and fellow students has died from an excess of that culture.
I wish we could learn a lesson from the senseless passing of such a bright, talented young man, but culture is hard to change when so many see no reason to change it.
Christopher J. Fontenot
Doctoral Student
K-12 Administration