OU is considering putting a pub in Oklahoma Memorial Union. Opponents argue that a university is no place to serve alcohol; it's a place of higher education.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Some of the most intelligent men in history have been alcoholics.

Take Ernest Hemingway, for example. Hemingway is recognized as one of the greatest authors of all time. Guess what? The man drank like a fish. More alcohol flowed through his veins than through a room full of journalists. If he had been sober, we wouldn't have A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls or The Sun Also Rises.

Another famous drinker was Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote some of the most terrifying literature of our or any other time. Do you think he would have been as scary if he were sober? I don't. He probably would have been writing children's literature.

The list of drinkers who were great minds goes on and on -- Jim Morrison, John Belushi, almost every philosopher. After all, what did Socrates put his hemlock in -- wine!

Now it's true that, in some cases, the drinking was taken to extremes. But we're adults. If we want to drink, we're going to drink.

The only difference having a pub in the union would make is that instead of getting our beers at any of the local establishments that circle campus, we'd be putting money back into the university.

Sooner spirit would rule on campus as students drank gallons of beer every semester to help support our proud school.

No longer would we need a tuition hike to raise funds.

We could simply set aside all the money from the pub to pay for campus improvements like another statue of a scary horse that frightens small children. Or to tear down another wall so Boyd House has a pretty view.

Responsible drinking does not make for bad academics. The Declaration of Independence is one of the greatest political documents ever written, and it was written in a bar.

Universities around the world have had pubs on campus for years. Are they any less educational than OU? No. Many of them are even more respected than our school.

The bottom line is that irresponsible drinking will take place whether we have a pub on campus or not.

Putting a pub in the union won't change the likelihood that people will drink, just the location. If OU can make a few bucks in the process, then I say raise your glass and toast the best university in the state.
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