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Point of Reference
by Fred Price
The morning after a house party on Johnson St., Jenna Foellmi and several other twenty-something friends lay sprawled about on couches and beds. When one of them reached out to wake Foellmi, she was unresponsive and cold to the touch. Her friends’ screams woke everyone else in the house.
Jenna Foellmi was a bio-chemistry major at Winona State University, who on Dec. 14 of last year – one day after finishing her semester exams – died of alcohol poisoning. Her death was tragic, but all too typical of the results brought on by risky behavior on college campuses today. Kids trade nude pictures of themselves from their cell-phones and pose suggestively on the internet, take “party” drugs to relax and intensify their “fun”, play drinking “games” for entertainment; apparently oblivious to or ignoring the risks of rape, disease, injury and death as they do.
Federal records show 157 college-age young people between the ages of 18 & 23 drank themselves to death between 1999,2005. (The most recent figures available.) The average number of alcohol poisonings resulting in death increasing from 18 in 1999 to 35 in 2005. In most cases, the victims don’t die alone; often surrounded by friends and acquaintances who go to bed in an attempt to “sleep it off” or merely pass out on the couch. Jenna’s mother, Kate Foellmi, acknowledges that was the case with her daughter, “It’s not like they just left her. She went to bed and she was snoring. (Possibly an indication of respiratory distress.) She just didn’t wake up.” 1
Research indicates alcohol-related deaths spike on weekends when many young people go out with the specific goal of getting drunk; and in December when finals are over. Most of the dead are young men, freshmen at greatest risk, many dying during their first semester of “freedom”; the opportunity to choose for themselves what they do and don’t do apparently too much for them. Surprisingly, a 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found full-time college students at greater risk of binge-drinking deaths than those not in school. Which raises a number of pertinent questions, not the least of which involves who you choose to hang out with, the environment we knowingly and at times foolishly place ourselves in, and the way we choose to ignore or stand firm in the “education” we received at home and in church before going out into the big, bad world.
A number of these deaths, as with Miss Foellmi, happened to bright, intelligent individuals; not the stereo-typical dumb jock or uneducated boozer. Which helps prove the point that you may know your limit before you start drinking, but your perspective changes when you’re drunk. Many, if not most of these young people knew better – or were at least aware of the danger involved – but allowed the college “experience” and peer pressure to get the best of their better judgment; to their friends’ and families’ everlasting grief and disbelief. Who often ask, ‘How could God allow this happen?’ When we should ask, ‘Why would they do that to themselves?’
The Bible answers both of these questions, speaking to our inherent sinfulness and difficulty in heeding God’s word, which a misguided few consider “foolishness”. 1Cor. 2:13,14Their actions and the calamities they often stumble into, proving scriptures’ point when it says “…the wisdom of the world (is the real culprit) and is foolishness in God’s sight.” 1 Corinthians 3:19, and the all-to-evident fact that, “…fools die for lack of judgment.” Proverbs 10:21
Let me hasten to say that I intend no disrespect or insult to those who have passed on or are left behind hurting; nor am I judging the state of anyone’s soul. What I am trying to address is the poorly thought out, silly – or foolish – things we often do to ourselves; repeatedly placing ourselves in harm’s way, occasionally paying the price for having done so. The reality being, “A wise (child) brings joy to (their) father, but a foolish (one) grief to (their) mother.” Proverbs 10:1 (Again, foolish not being an epithet hurled anyone’s way or an accusation aimed at the individual’s involved, but discernment of a particular action.) So, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith… be strong.” 1 Corinthians 16:13 Even as you, “Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness,…” 2 Timothy 2:22
1Quote, story and stats taken from an article appearing in the Terre Haute Tribune by Amy Forhiti
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Fred Price - married (50 years), father of two grown children, grandfather of six.
Fred retired earlier this year after 42 years as a factory worker. He has always had a heart for young people and the challenges they face today. Over the years Fred has taught Discipleship Groups for High School and college students.
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