[at-l] Camping for the Gathering and the Use of Alcohol

[spiriteagle99 at hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

hotdog wrote:
>**
>I believe there are issues, but never saw any brawls.
>There are always drunken hikers (they have more issues than we can address 
>here),
>but at least I never heard  them (this was my issue, the noise), I  must 
>have
>slept far enough away.

Nope - didn't say there were brawls - at the Gathering. Yet.  But there sure 
have been some "on the Trail" in the past.

>
>**
>But it seems to always be "the few" that ruin things for everyone else,  
>it's
>not just an ALDHA thing.

You're right - it's not just an ALDHA thing.  It's also a "Trail thing"  - 
and a "societal thing."
But that doesn't mean ALDHA has to put up with it to the point that ALDHA as 
an organization gets a rep that we don't want - or until someone gets hurt 
(as almost happened last year) - or until the Folklife Center (or Hanover) 
decides that we're not welcome there anymore.  For those of us who've been 
around a while, the atmosphere at Hanover has gotten decidedly colder and 
ALDHA is a lot less welcome than we once were.  Nor is the Folklife Center 
as accomodating as it once was.


>**
>Some of us give up alcohol most of the year, and don't wish to for this
>weekend.Your
>one size fits all statement doesn't fit us. Some of us rarely drink for  
>most
>of the year, and want to have a few when we get together with friends  that
>we only see at the
>Gathering.  Don't assume we are all alcohol abusers.
>I can understand the Folk life centers policy, they should have been
>enforcing it all along, so it wouldn't be an issue now.

The "one-size-fits-all" statement is entirely accurate the way it's phrased. 
  Those who CANNOT give up alcohol for a weekend do have an alcohol problem. 
  Those who, like you, don't want to give it up - fit into the next 
category, not this one. The problem here is that most of those who CANNOT 
give it up for the weekend will place themselves in the next category too.   
I like an occassional beer or two myself - especially when I get to gether 
with friends I haven't seen for a while.  But I don't do so at the Folklife 
Center because I respect their hospitality.

As for "enforcing it all along" - it has been publicly anounced at every 
Gathering and it's been printed in some of the Gathering literature.  In the 
past, AT hikers have been assumed to be adult enough to abide by rules.  It 
hasn't been deemed necessary - or even desirable - to "enforce" those rules. 
  But that's apparently changed.

>**
>... "consistent problems that the drinkers cause"...  Hmmm..  More 
>accurately:
>People that were assholes  to start with, that drink,  cause problems. It 
>just
>makes them bigger problems than they already were.

Yeah - agreed.  But those few a$$***** will, if not checked, destroy the 
organization.  Personally, I'd much rather that we self-police ourselves.  
But that ain't gonna happen because of the nature of hikers.  There are too 
many who think the "Hike your own hike" mantra gives them license to do 
whatever they want - including getting drunk and disorderly, burning the 
shelter down and hassling the locals. Or screaming their way through the 
night and keeping others awake.  And there are too many of us who look at 
their BS and tell ourselves that it's not our business.  So we don't do 
anything about it --- and they get away with it - and the rest of us pay the 
price by getting a rep as a rowdy organization.  Not acceptable - it is most 
certainly OUR business.  We lost one campsite at Hanover because of that 
kind of behavior.  And we may eventually lose Storrs's Pond if there are too 
many repeats of last years performance.

Thanks for the response -
Walk softly,
Jim