Did you ever wonder how or why some laws were enacted? Most of our laws can be traced back to a religious connection centuries old, wherein there were Divine commandments telling people how to treat one another. But beyond the obvious “do not kill” and “don’t take other people’s stuff” we have a myriad of laws that come from societal preferences or best practices. What is illegal in one place may be perfectly fine in another.
In general, when a problem is seen, someone pushes for a rule, or law, to stop it. Then someone has to push for ways to enforce it and punish it so that people won’t want to break it. And so, back in the 1920’s alcohol was prohibited for awhile because a law was passed saying so. Some people didn’t like the law, and broke it regularly.
Today there are people who don’t like some of the laws either. Teens don’t like the laws that say they cannot drink alcohol yet, and some parents don’t see a problem with giving a little bit of alcohol to their kids that are under 21.
A woman in South Windsor found this out the hard way. Wendy Burnham had allowed her child to invite friends over for an after-junior-prom party at her home on Saturday May 14, 2011. 40 or 50 kids ages 15-18 showed up, apparently with a large amount of liquor with them. Now, Ms. Burnham states that she went to bed and had no knowledge of the fact that there was alcohol being consumed at the party. Police doubt her story, saying that they responded to a neighbor’s complaint and found many young people holding cans of beer and bottles of whiskey and rum. They say that the music was loud and that with so many kids there, they doubt that Ms. Burnham could possibly have been asleep.
Ms. Burnham was arrested and charged with risk of injury to a minor and permitting a minor to possess alcohol. She had to pay a $2500 bond and then was released and she will have to appear at the Manchester Superior Court on May 26, 2011.
Whether Ms. Burnham was aware or not seems to be beside the point. She was the homeowner and therefore the responsible adult in the home. She should have paid attention and known what was going on. Perhaps the parents of the other kids who were called by the police to come and get their children - will think so as well.
We might not like a law. But if it’s there, it was probably put there for good reasons, and until someone can prove that it’s not necessary, it needs to be obeyed.
