Belegarth and Binge Drinking

Before I begin, I think you should all know exactly who's writing this, so you can understand my biases. I don't really drink at all. I don't abstain for religious or medical reasons, but because I don't like how it makes me feel, how it tastes, or how it is used as an excuse for destructive behavior. I don't mind other people drinking in moderation, and I have plenty of friends that have way more fun after a couple of beers. I'm one of those annoying people who would rather party sober because I find nights more exciting when everyone can remember what happened. Obviously, not everyone is like that, and I respect that people have fun in different ways, but I won't willingly choose to be part of drunken shenanigans.

With that background, I'd like to point out something that made me extremely disappointed when I saw it. It's part of the official schedule for Spring Wars this year:

Now, the issue of professionalism aside, I realize this is a joke. I certainly laughed when I first saw it. But then it dawned on me why I was laughing: because it's true.

We may make fun, but when I thought back to just how many problems I had seen due to this kind of behavior at previous events, I became deeply disappointed that an event team would implicitly condone it. This sort of thing is exactly why many people won't run for the BoD and a large part of why I withdrew from the race for PR Coordinator - if something bad goes down, especially if Belegarth is seen approving this behavior, there is no liability insurance to protect them from a lawsuit. It's also part of the reason why going to events is a hard sell to those who have families to think about. Although most Belegrim are just fine, the few who overdo it cause problems for everyone.

The way I see it, an event goer's right to have fun however they want ends where damage to other peoples' events begins. I'm not talking about just annoying people, but doing things that could get Belegarth permanently banned from a park, legitimate harassment, disrupting the event, or damaging/destroying property. Almost every event I have been to has had something from that list occur to me or someone I know, usually when drunkenness was involved. I can't imagine how many others I don't know are affected by it.

A short list of a few things I have witnessed over the years:

• Rape whistles being blown all night "for fun". As a young woman going to her first event, I kept thinking "What if someone really needs to use a rape whistle? Will anyone notice?" and was very glad I was staying with my boyfriend.
• A random, drunk stranger hanging out by the women's bathroom that told me "you can't go in there" very seriously when I walked up. I was alone and had no clue if he was messing with me, but I didn't see any signs so I continued on my way. He then followed me as I walked around the corner to go in yelling "hey, why aren't you listening to me?!" behind me along with a few other colorful things. I didn't walk to the bathrooms alone after that.
• Fighting being delayed for several hours because someone had broken bottles on the field. Event coordinators had to clean up so fighters wouldn't have glass shards in their feet.
• Drunks yelling near our camp until 2am, purposefully keeping everyone awake. The worst part was that I was running the crack-of-dawn shift at Troll. Not exactly a nice "thank you" for helping with the event.
• Lots of vomit on other peoples' things. Good luck getting the guy who did it to clean it up - chances are he doesn't even remember.
• General damage or destruction of other people's property. Chairs were the most common victim, but even tents happened occasionally when enough alcohol was involved.
• Underage drinking. I may personally not care about it, but that is a huge problem for more than just the drinker if anything really bad happens.
• Drunks running through a camp, tripping over all the tent lines because they're too uncoordinated, and leaving the camp to re-pitch everything they knock down.

This list doesn't even include all the stories I've heard from others, many of which relate to serious sexual harassment. I realize some of this is just jerks being jerks, but too often it's seen as "okay" or "funny" to do these things because you're drunk, as if the responsibility for your actions and words no longer applies because you have alcohol in your system. Well, someone has to pay the price for you, whether it be the woman you scare away from events, the fighter who has to replace their camping gear, security giving up their night to keep you under control, or event coordinators dealing with the park or police.

Let me leave you with this message: have fun, enjoy your drinks, but please watch out for your fellow Belegrim and don't encourage this behavior. If you want to get wasted, fine, but respect the people around you. Watch out for the "problem" people in your camp, the ones who are most likely to do something really stupid in a destructive way, not a funny way. The more fun had at someone else's expense, the fewer Belegrim will be willing to coordinate and go to events. Please don't drive away the people who give you awesome fighting and a great nightlife because you can't control yourself with alcohol.