This letter is in response to an opinion of Josh Tulkin concerning the role of alcohol on campus and the inconvenience of wet grass (TSL, 9/24/99). Specifically, I was shocked by Tulkin’s assertion that "drinking for the sake of getting drunk is stupid and immature." When I read this, I considered my own experiences on this campus which might agree with this sentiment. For instance, I have met some people who, when drunk, have seemed to be stupid. I have also met students at Pomona who appeared, at the time, to be immature. However, I feel like Mr. Tulkin and I have assumed different attitudes concerning the behavior of our peers. Whereas Mr. Tulkin’s opinion is that to drink beer of poor quality primarily to achieve a drunken state of mind is somewhat a disgrace to the dignity and posterity of our college, I on the other hand think it is a testament to one’s freedom as a developing person in our luxurious college setting to get ridiculously tanked and run around.

I hold this opinion for what I think is a good reason; that kids here are good people. I take my peers here at Pomona to be enthusiastic students and powerful intellectuals. I observe with awe the amazing concepts which these people make it their business to understand. I feel that these kids will run a large part of the world after they graduate. But these kids have not graduated yet and until they do, they have time to goof off. I find it reasonable to expect that future leaders of the world be familiar with common facts of life, such as the affection many people have for goofing off and getting drunk.

This is not to say that binge drinking is a trivial problem for everyone, that it is an unavoidable activity in a college setting, or that goofing off must always involve cirrhosis of the liver. I merely wish to bring to Mr. Tulkin the awareness that not everyone who drinks cheap beer for a good time is an unrefined philistine incapable of mature thought and that to be immature and stupid for a good portion of one’s college education is one defense against the tractor-truck of academia which, at times, seems to plow and harvest young minds the same way this college cultivates its lawns into elegant yet impassable and thoroughly boring patches of ground. This is the theory that, in our world, success-oriented kids do not always spend enough time being playful and immature and consequently become powerful bastards.

I do not wish to call anyone a bastard nor to implement a drinking PAC in Pomona’s curriculum. I merely propose that, if Mr. Tulkin were perhaps to drink a six pack of Lucky Lager, he might find himself perfectly content rolling around in the wet grass. Also, if Mr. Tulkin is then observed by refined citizens and termed "stupid and immature," I advise him not to give a shit.

Sincerely,

Mark Hurwitz ’01