The Daily Pennsylvanian :: Guest Columnist

My first swig of malt liquor followed a moment of trepidation, my eyes scanning the Olde English label then shifting to the golden brew. This was a new drink for me - suspiciously cheap - and I now wish I had honored the old adage: You get what you pay for.

But those were also new times: a new city, new school, new friends. And some of those new friends were veterans of the 40; a few were even whole-hearted advocates.

Thus began a year of devouring that vile beverage, navigating campus under its influence, bonding with hallmates through mutual intoxication and learning first-hand that it tastes as bad coming up as it does going down.

Those days have passed, and I haven't touched malt liquor since freshman year. Yet I now find myself in the odd position of defending it.

This week, U.S. Congressman Bob Brady - known most recently for his failed attempt to capture the 2007 Democratic mayoral nomination in Philadelphia - lashed out against Colt 45 advertisements on two SEPTA busses.

Brady claims that, "given our rising epidemic of violence, [SEPTA's] promotion of especially dangerous malt liquor is extraordinarily counterproductive. Through these ads, SEPTA is effectively condoning malt liquor sales and consumption throughout Philadelphia."

Taken on its face, this statement is somewhat baffling. Does Brady posses evidence of Colt 45's "especially dangerous" qualities?

Is he seriously chastising cash-strapped SEPTA for advertising a legal product, for which a market exists, in an effort to generate revenue?

Still, his arguments must have been somewhat convincing, since SEPTA announced yesterday it would discontinue the ads.

Which means that people are buying into Brady's notion that there is a relationship between "our rising epidemic of violence" and "malt liquor sales and consumption throughout Philadelphia."

This suggestion echoes a battle that's been raging for quite a while.

A battle between what's known as a "stop-'n'-go" - a store that is permitted to sell take-out alcohol, usually located in areas of the city with the highest crime rates - and individuals who want the city to revoke stop-'n'-go licenses to sell alcohol.

These individuals say that, because the establishments sell malt liquor and beer, they inevitably attract unsavory and often violent patrons.

Surprisingly, not all sales of alcoholic beverages have gotten Brady's blood boiling.

The Congressman has yet to speak up about the plastering of SEPTA bus ads for Center City Sips, a weekly happy hour special that attracts a very different clientele than the stop-'n'-gos of Philly's rougher neighborhoods.

There must be something special about malt liquor, something "especially dangerous" that you cannot find in the whiskies and gins of Center City.

One thing is certain: It's not the alcohol content.

It's clear that it's not just the substance that matters to Brady - it's the consumer. It's the assumption that malt liquor intake is more prevalent among the poorer, more violent and predominantly African-American stratum of the Philadelphia citizenry.

It's the assumption that malt liquor plays a role in violent acts. And it's the assumption that many Philadelphians are incapable of regulating their own intake of a legal substance.

The implication, of course, is that Brady and the government are somehow wiser when it comes to matters of individual consumption. I think more highly of the citizenry and find Brady's position both condescending and baseless.

But let's assume his assumptions hold weight. If alcohol consumption, malt liquor specifically, is correlated with violence in Philadelphia, and if individuals are irresponsible and act criminally while under the influence, how does removing a couple of ads address the problem?

If laws are being broken by individuals under the influence of any substance, why distribute the punishment to the corporations, stop-'n'-go owners (often immigrants depending on their small businesses) and SEPTA patrons?

This is clearly a law enforcement issue: If an irresponsible drinker breaks the law, the government should and must enforce that law.

Until an individual breaks the law, the government and Brady should recognize an individual's position as a citizen capable of making sound decisions.

And if Brady feels so certain that malt liquor consumption is a major cause of Philadelphia's crime problem, why not bring prohibition to the city?

The 21st Amendment opens up that option - and if Brady were able to make his case, would citizens be willing to give up their drinks to solve the city's crime problem?

I doubt it.

Brady said he would find alternative advertisers for SEPTA if they ended their contract with Colt 45.

If only he were so eager to help SEPTA raise money without the absurd insistence on a rhetorical spectacle that undermines the dignity of the city's malt liquor lovers.

Now that's something I'd drink to.

Josh Stanfield is a College junior from Poquoson, Va. His e-mail address is stanfiel@sas.upenn.edu.

Comments (11)

poor people in a neighboorhood I've never been to are killing each other? drugs and gangs are killing people who are nothing like me? moon dust is disapearing at an alarming rate? um. who cares? wake me up when the price of Xbox games goes up. -proudly apathetic penn student

[QUOTE id="d7f6a653-e48d-42a7-bd88-41cb2bd4720f"]poor people in a neighboorhood I've never been to are killing each other? drugs and gangs are killing people who are nothing like me? moon dust is disapearing at an alarming rate? um. who cares? wake me up when the price of Xbox games goes up. -proudly apathetic penn student[/QUOTE] ...person who isn't anything like you. When boring, soulless, suburbanite Penn students who don't do anything more productive with their lives than masturbate to the possibility of joining mommy and daddy or some family friend's business get mugged, stabbed, or shot on campus, guess what? Wake me up the next time a Penn student gets cut or robbed so I can laugh at your pain. Hell, at least I'll be acknowledging it, which is more than you'd ever do. -proudly sadistic schadenfreude-embracing Philadelphian

Why stop at Colt 45 ads? How about ads for expensive cars and clothes? We all know kids deal drugs because they covet the status symbols of Escalades and Air Jordans. How about getting all the nasty, violent rap off the air? If Brady is so concerned about impressionable ghetto youth, why not do something about the pay to play and patronage mentality of city politics? Of course not, since he is a beneficiary.

Craigsolve: It's always encouraging when opposition resorts first to the ad hominem; it usually foreshadows the subsequent lack of argument. You didn't let me down. I will not argue on behalf of my character, since that would involve me engaging with an opponent wholly ignorant of the subject. I spend plenty of time off campus; actually, I have lived on 45th street for over a year, and intend to stay there for several more. My commentary is not a put-up job for the DP; on the contrary, I have often railed against the DP and, publicly, against their unsupported editorial denouncement of your friend Bob Brady prior to the primary. Your suggestion that prior to this column my name was "good" even further demonstrates your ignorance. Though your description of the Outley House neighborhood is interesting, you appear to have entirely missed the point. You suggest malt liquor is Outley House residents' beverage of choice: how does that in any way demonstrate that it's the cause of violence, or for that matter any crime save littering? It doesn't. I suspect malt liquor is the beverage of choice, because it's inexpensive. But that's beside the point. There is no "attack of malt liquor" on anyone's quality of life - there is an attack of addiction that doesn't discriminate between malt liquor, beer, wine, or liquor. This, of course, is a medical issue; but if intoxicated individuals break the law, it becomes a legal issue. You seem to take issue primarily with the aesthetic results of discarded malt liquor containers. In that case, I suggest you put together a street team and start cleaning up, or try to convince the police to move littering to the top of their list. "A lot of struggling to be middle class people" may see Brady's effort differently than I do. But I'm not as interested in the perception of his comment as the actual merit - I'll leave it to politicians like Brady to manipulate public perception with spurious claims. After all, isn't that what it takes nowadays to get reelected?

Hey Craigsolve: I will gladly entertain myself at POD on your tab. Put your money where your mouth is and throw down the credit card (or I'm guessing debit card/quarter rolls in your case?). I'll be at POD at 5:30pm sharp this Friday-- don't be a coward. Oh, and I am guessing your phrase "especial to wash down they're crack and refer" really meant to say, "especialLY to wash down THEIR crack and reEfer". Dumbass.

We should drink malt liquor again...it's been a while. Perhaps I can bring a case of Colt 4-feezey with me next time I'm in town and toast to Bob Brady.

Dear Josh: Let me first declare my personal biases, though they do not drive my negative comments regarding you and your commentary. I know Bob Brady. I like Bob Brady. I respect Bob Brady. And, I consider myself a friend of Bob Brady. My above biases in no way drive my decision to declare you an ivory towered, ivy walled parochial immature short on life's experiences moron, who needs to spend more time off campus due SW exploring the ravages of life in the ETOH torn ghetto. Of course if your commentary is a put-up job to help the DP post copy, I admire you for so unselfishly destroying your good name to give the paper a nice look. Back to the ETOH awash ghetto that your institution along with its proxy UCD has so unscrupulously pushed into the western lying neighborhoods of color. At 6901 Woodland Avenue you will find the Outley House; a homeless shelter and substance abuse program, which draws daily into a struggling residential community and PHA apartment campus the scourge of 200 addicted men that otherwise would find much opportunity pan-handling and sleeping on university lawns and benches. Based on the client trash left around the adjacent neighborhood, though they'll drink anything ETOH based, their discarded on the street containers show a preference for malt liquors like Colt 45, especial to wash down they're crack and refer. So what you see as Brady's intellectual dishonesty and infringement of your minimalist advertising civil rights, a lot of struggling to be middle class people see it as Brady's effort to incrementally address the attack of malt liquor on the quality of their life in neighborhoods not blessed like yours. While I can't personally address the SEPTA budget shortfall, I welcome you to entertain yourself on my tab at the Inn at Penn or POD. They both sell Colt 45 to you classy kids, right?

I know Josh personally, and Josh I�?m sorry to say that I am appalled by your column. What the rest of you don�?t know if that last summer he held an internship at the Pabst Brewing Company / G. Heileman Brewing Co. I wonder if this has had any effect on his opinion regarding advertisements for Colt 45, a product marketed by the same company from which he received income just a few months ago. I can�?t speak for the motivation behind this article, only Josh can, but I think the apparent conflict of interest is at best, unethical. As to the effect of malt liquor on the teeming masses of the urban ghettos, I am inclined to agree the residents on this one. Haven�?t we done enough injustice to these people already? I don�?t think advertising a product which is empirically shown to decrease inhibitions and increase violent behavior is the right thing to do, especially on public property.

Pay for play journalism: You're obviously mistaken. I spent my summer last year in Philadelphia working at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (3680 Walnut Street). I have no idea where the Pabst Brewing Company is, but I can assure you that I'd never waste my time working for a company that puts out a product as disgusting as PBR. I don't know if this is some weak attempt at discrediting my column, but what I do know is you conveniently posted anonymously. I�?d like to assume the readers aren�?t credulous enough to take the word of an anonymous individual over mine, but if anyone finds themselves leaning in that direction, feel free to email me and I�?ll substantiate my whereabouts and employment last summer.

Since when did people start passing their time by falsely posting in the DP's comments section? Is there any way for posts to be reported as inappropriate (i.e. if they have clearly been written by an individual other than (s)he under whose name it is published?)

I did not write the last post, but thank you for your support. I did not work at a beer company, nor have I ever worked at the Annenberg Center. Please do not contact me regarding where I worked or any other personal information. I find the interest in my personal life flattering, but the real issue here is the public welfare and safety of Philadelphia residents. Also, I have nothing against PBR, it's actually quiet good.

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