Ames, you just gave me the chills – how scary is that!!!!
Thank G-d there were no incidents this year (couple of fireworks and a little noise, but nothing major).
Flatbush – to address the issue of why should one person ruin it for the rest of us – well, unfortunately, that is OFTEN the case. it is caslled “collateral damage,” and it is so insidious because of the innocent get hurt along with the guilty. Just to take it away from alcohol for the moment – several members of my immediate family, myself included have either chronic or occasional allergies and need to take Claritin D ona regular basis. My hsuband and son need it twice a day every day. Because a “few” teenagers were using these decongestants in order to manufacture illicit drugs from this legal source, the government now has made it a very difficult and annoying process to obtain this OTC medication. If I buy the maximum limited amount allowed, I cannot buy it again in the same month. So my husband has to go buy it, my son has to buy it, my daughter, etc. etc. a very annoying process, especially since one member of the family alone can use up a thirty pill supply in fifteen days. Sothen what is he supposed to do? And that is because the minority ruined it for the rest of us.
The man who is now accused of losing billions of dollars in the Ponzi scheme, has ruined investments for the rest of us> Bad things happen all the time to the Klal because of one stupid individual. It is what it is. If one person has AIDS and an innocent pregnant woman gets a blood transfusion from his blood, and both she and her baby become HIV-positive and die, why should they have had to suffer because HE indulged in unsafe behaviors? It is to teach us that every single thing we do has an impact on someone else, even when we are not aware of that impact. Tell the mother whose kid was hit by a car driven by a drunk teenager, that it was only a minority.
If one boy gets drunk and causes harm to himself and others, it is one too many. Collateral damage.