Over the Top Reaction of the Day

You know, I try to keep things light here. I’m not in this to get a reputation as a bully or a bulldog or a bull-ony. But I read an article in the Sentinel today that absolutely made me furious. Enough so that I feel I should send a letter to the paper in response. But maybe I’ll just vent here to keep myself in limited amounts of trouble.

So for background, go and read the story in the Sentinel and Enterprise. I’ll wait.

Okay, so a local mom blew her top over a flier sent home to parents about a wine tasting to benefit the Leominster Education Foundation. A foundation, by the way, trying to raise money to put computers, software and other tools into the schools, outside of the regular school budget.

I’d heard about the wine tasting at the PTO meeting, and I thought it was great that they’d been able to put something like this together. I also got the flier in Junior’s backpack this week.

Here’s where my head exploded:

“The schools are basically saying, ‘Hey, there’s a wine tasting, give this to mommy and daddy so we can get drunk with them,'” Tarbell said Thursday afternoon.
Tarbell said the flier sends kids the message that drinking is acceptable.

You know, Ms. Tarbell, if you interpret a wine tasting as an invitation to get drunk, that would be YOUR PROBLEM and maybe you should look into getting some professional help. Wine Tasting does not equal kegger. Wine Tasting is not a tailgate party. Wine tasting is not taking a bottle of Boone’s Farm behind the neighbor’s barn when you were 12.

And guess what, Ms. Tarbell? Drinking IS acceptable. To pretty much everyone except Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Lindsey Lohan or anyone not legally of age to do so. I spent 3 weeks with a family in France and even the youngest kids had some watered down wine with their meals. Because it’s not the big freaking deal it is over here. So when they turn 18 or 21 they don’t immediately become useless wastoids intent on killing every last brain cell on 100 proof rum. Because they don’t see things like wine tastings as Nosferatu’s Welcome Wagon.

Your poor kids are going to have a really warped sense of alcohol’s place in our lives, and I would fear that they are going to see it as the apple tree in the garden of Eden. “Oooh, it’s forbidden and it makes mom crazy! It must be AWESOME!”

And if you don’t like my response, too bad. Maybe you shouldn’t have taken your misbegotten crusade to the newspaper. I got the flier, and there is NOTHING ABOUT IT that implies a)it’s for kids and b) that it’s anything but a very classy, exclusive opportunity for adults to gather and try small samples of wine and food. Not one thing about the flier would have been appealing to an 11 year old. My 9 year old didn’t even look at it. YOU, my dear, are the one making your children think this is a BFD.

Well, hey, one thing, you got the Foundation’s event a lot of free publicity. I’ll bet people who weren’t even thinking of going before are now going to buy a ticket. I know I may. Just to prove a point.