How we assign responsibility.

On Friday I had a nice long drive down to Chicago to pick my husband up at the airport. Even though I hate traffic, and at times it was heavy, I found the ride to be pleasant. My daughter amused herself with her books and toys we brought along for the drive and I found myself thinking about the article about Wisconsin's drinking and responsibility we had discussed in class on Thursday. Mostly I thought about how we try to pass the blame, depending on our view of the situation.
I thought about the student mentioned in the article who drowned after a night of drinking. I thought about other articles I have read over the years about people who died drunk driving. I thought about what I learned in the responsible beverage servers class, how it is the alcohol servers responsibility and judgement to stop serving an intoxicated person. So, who really is to blame when a tragedy happens? Usually blame is passed around. Blame the bartender or bartenders who served the alcohol, blame the friends, blame the city, blame the store, blame the car, etc. It always seems everyone is to blame except the person who died. Of course that is human nature, who really wants to blame the dead for their own death. Very rarely do you ever hear a parent saying my child died because of their own fault.
This brought me to thinking about a very close and dear friend of the family that passed away many years ago. He was 14 years old and he died after being flung off a car while car surfing. For years it was the drivers fault. The driver should have done this, the driver should have done that. And in an essence, the driver was irresponsible, he never should have drove the car with someone sitting on it. But in the end, it was our friends fault for car surfing. No one made him do it, he knew it was dangerous and still he chose to do it.
How this relates back to the drinking is if a person chooses to drink they take on the responsibilities the come with drinking. There are always risks and dangers, and the choice to drink is one's own choice, no one is pointing a gun to your head making drinking the safer option. The sad part is that many drinkers think themselves or their friends can handle their alcohol, think that they are ok to drive, think that the bad stuff will not happen to them. It is this lack of understanding of the true dangers of alcohol that cause tragedies to happen. If you chose to drink, drink responsible, drink in moderation and drink with respect for others in you community.