What is the world coming to....

You can be sued for just about anything. There is a story in the local news that just saddens me.

A young girl 21, died after drinking too much on her 21st birthday. The family is suing her friends (and the bartender). I find this just so hard to swallow. They have lost a friend, and they are suffering too. I am sure no where NEAR the extent of the family, whom I'm deeply sorry for, but still, suffering.

What does this case teach our children? To me, its saying she is not accountable for her own actions. And I understand while under the influence you can be pursuaded to do things you would not normally do. But in this case, that doesnt seem to be what happend. It seems to me a girl was turning 21 and wanted to go live it up. She was having way too much fun (as where her friends) and unfortuantely did not know when to stop. It ended tragically.

Now, had her friends forcered her to drink 21 straight "3 wise men"s I'd say, yes, they are partly to blame. But this girl, was young, and living life. Its sounds to me from the reports that she had been intoxicated to a high degree many times in her college life. Just as most of us where.

This could have happend to almost every single one of my friends in college at some point. Would I have felt guilty? Maybe. But should I be responsible for thier choice to drink? I dont see how that seems logical. I can take my friends keys, I can steal her wallet, I can hide the liquor, but can I STOP her from drinking if thats what she wants to do! The best thing I can do as a friend is get her home safely (as they did). Should I sit next to my friends bed every night she decides to go out drinking and keep vigil until she awakes safe and sound, that seems quite irrational.

I know there are many of a times, I should have stopped and didnt. I know that no matter what my friends said or did, it had to be MY choice. Only I would have been responsible had something as tragic as this had happend to me.

The most important thing I will tell Izze is that only SHE can be accountable for her choices. And god hopes she makes good ones. But if she doesnt, the only person other then her I feel should be to blame is me. Because I'm the one who taught her to make the choices in the first place.