Are you guys serious? I have read posts from all of you before, and you seem like intelligent people. The reasons why you care should be obvious.
First, have you not known or loved anyone whos life was ruined by excess alcohol? I do. Excessive alcohol is destructive. It is not funny, it is not a joke. Again, I am not crying for another Prohibition here. I am not against having a drink. I just had one with dinner.
Responsibility is the issue at stake.
Second: We pilots are often thought of as "dashing", wild, adventurous, etc. These are all good qualities. Unfortunately, we are also burdened with stereotypes such as "reckless", "whiny", "arrogant", "rude", and "can't keep their pants on." Uh, I wonder why?!?!?!? What are we doing to change the stereotypes?
As I pointed out in the "Mooning Pilots" forum, these negative stereotypes (that are often reinforced by irresponsible individuals like the ones in the news) drag down the public perception of what kind of person a pilot is. If the public perceives that pilots are not very respectable, responsible, and trustworthy members of society and need to be babysat,
THEN WE WILL BE PAID AND TREATED ACCORDINGLY!!!! So many pilots on this forum complain about pay and QOL, then they go get hammered and do something that (like it or not) brands us all with a negative stereotype.
Seriously. Some pilots need to stop complaining about how "the man is holding us down" until they can get their own act together and we as a community can regain an image of discipline and
class. A major reason why pilots used to command more respect is because they were more respectable. It's time for more discipline among peers.