Amber Petty can be heard on 5AA 1-4pm every weekday over summer, and is a columnist for The Advertiser. This story was written by her and published in The Advertiser December 2011, and she has given me permission to publish it on my blog.

Wake up Sunday morning

“1. My name is Australia, and I’m an alcoholic! ‘Welcome to the program Australia, it’s nice to finally see you here.’ 2. Is it being a good parent to buy your child’s alcohol in order for them to take to a party? Sure you can think you’re controlling their intake, but it also says drinking is a given, and ignoring laws are an option. 3. If we as adults grew up remembering our parents regularly intoxicated, or even just at a weekend bbq here and there, it’s no wonder we think it’s ok to behave exactly the same. 4. How many times can you honestly say that you have drunk alcohol out of pressure, trying to fit in, rather because you enjoyed the taste? Believe it or not, there are countries that would find this habit very odd. Who would have thought it would take an average, 25-year-old Aussie bloke to flag up the fact that we as Australians, quite possibly need to take a long hard look at our drinking? A simple question that might leave the vast majority of us wanting to shoot back with a rather sheepish ‘no comment’, thanks mate! You may never have heard of Chris Raine, yet, but he is the sort of young Australian that is moved by quotes from the likes of Robert (Bobby) Kennedy, who famously said “Some men see things and ask ‘why?’, I dream of things that never were, and say ‘why not?’” When many others his age are more likely to be spruiking, Pitbull’s pearls of wisdom ‘excuse, I might drink a little more than I should do tonight.’ Hello Sunday Morning is a thought provoking health initiative that is the creation of this one young Australian, ‘whose vision is to see that future generations of Australians grow up in a nation where drinking is an individual choice, not a cultural expectation.’ This is the legacy he would like to see with his program called Hello Sunday Morning. Chris wants to share his program, to make it our program, by asking we, his fellow Aussies to consider taking 12 weeks off drinking in 2012, and then to blog about their sober journey, or attempt there of, on the site at http://www.hellosundaymorning.com.au If we, and I say the majority of Australians, were really faced with the pressure of temporarily giving up drinking, what would your initial reaction be? It’s a strange dilemma isn’t it? It shouldn’t really take evoke so much trepidation or perceived negative consequence, when really what the result would be, quite simply, is all of us feeling physically better and no doubt mentally better as well. So why is there so much panicked sifting that goes through many of our heads, when posed with what should be a very simple option? Why does ‘getting off the grog’ have the same effect as posing a personal threat? As a culture, our culture, getting pissed is basically seen as part of our Aussie mate ship ritual. Cracking open a ‘tinnie’ or opening a bottle of ‘charddy’ is our sort of offering to the gods of good fun. But if you think about it, we rarely, certainly at night, catch up in groups without alcohol coming along. So if we were honest with ourselves, as this program is asking us to consider, is the alcohol mandatory to our friendships, or is it part of the choice, along with the venue? If going out with your friends, and getting hassled for not drinking on the odd occasion, or even every occasion is met with anything like “don’t be stupid, why would you do that?” like not doing something is actually considered doing something and that doing something is supposedly a problem, an insult, then maybe that’s a problem? How often have you heard someone joke, with all too much seriousness, that if a woman is seen not drinking and out socially then surely she must be pregnant.? Is it a joke, or just a little snap shot of how extreme our alcohol culture has become that so many of us are on the wrong sort of ‘booze watch’. Terrified someone will be alert enough to see us all too clearly when we’re under the influence. It’s a bit like being a lifeguard, and then screaming ‘get out’ when there’s no sharks in sight. How many of us have either seen our parents reasonably pissed, or been parents ourselves drinking heavily in front of our kids? Is it really just part of life that we don’t consider whether this is the right way to behave? There’s no two ways about it, Hello Sunday Morning is worth thinking about. If going 12 weeks without drinking, is really that much of a problem, then maybe there really is a problem!”

(Amber Petty © December 2011)