Thursday, April 09, 2009
The Almost-Adult: a Feature of American Hypocrisy
Adults aging from 18 to 20 years can do a lot of things. They can smoke cigarettes and chew tobacco until they die of cancer. They can buy a house or a car, enter into a contract, and have careers. They can get a sex change operation, and donate their organs and blood. They can have consensual sex and choose to make more human beings. They can gamble all their money away, or they can invest it. They can get as many tattoos and piercings as they want. They can star in porn flicks and girls-gone-wild videos. They have to pay the government taxes. They can be tried as adults and be sent to prison for their crimes. They can join the armed forces, fight and possibly die for this great nation. Yet, not a single one of them can legally drink alcohol. No, not even at their weddings. Of course the fact that they can't doesn't stop them. But I digress... The greatest country in the world is engaging in hypocrisy. They have created the "Almost-Adult": 18-20 year old men and women who hang in limbo between child and adult, and the thread that they hang by is the ability to buy and drink alcohol. Does any one see how ridiculous this is? It is really quite confusing for the Almosts. "I am 18 and I am adult, but not really because I still can't drink." The law is more harmful than it is helpful. Its intended to prevent deaths due to drunk driving. Yet it causes teens and young adults to pursue their forbidden fruit like children climbing to reach the sacred cookie jar. If the government wants us to all act like adults, and insists that we are as such, then they should lower the drinking age to 18 and trust us.
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9 comments:
This blog post was created by Kendra Essig from CPO 2001, t/r 8:35 a.m..
I have often juggled with my own opinion this subject. I can easily see why people stand on each side of the controversy. It is clear that people within the 18-21 age bracket commit most of the alcohol related crimes; but does making it a criminal offence lesson the crime rate? From my own experiences, I have never found anyone who didn’t drink at that age because of the repercussions they may suffer. I believe if we increased the penalties for alcohol related crimes and accidents we would be able to safely lessen the legal age for alcohol consumption. No matter what the outcome may turn out to be we should put this issue back in the spotlight for serious discussion.
Justin Ford
CPO 2001
1:05 T R
Alex Suarez
CPO 2001
TR 1:05
In my opinion what America should do is what some European countries do for example, Germany. In Germany you have to be 18 to buy beer and 21 to buy alcohol. I do not see a better way of doing things, since alcohol is alot stronger than beer it would take alot of beer drinking in order to get on the same level as if you were drinking alcohol. I also think that young adults are not ready for the drinking age to be lowered. My reasons for saying this is that American young adults are not accustomed to alcohol being so easily obtained as to let say a European young adult who has been able to drink wine since a child. I just think that if we lower the drinking age it would not be as good a thing as you think.
Lisa Petty
POS 1041
T/R 11:35am
I completley agree...if alcohol werent so easy to get ahold of for underage kids then i would say the drinking age should be 20...but almost anyone can get alcohol if they really want it... people think that if u make it legal for 18 year olds to drink then they would cause more problems... the problems are still happening even though the drinking age is 21... I dont think anything would change if they lowerd the drinking age... i think its redicilous.
Jennifer Gordon
CPO2001
T/R 1:05 pm
I also believe this is ridiculous. If someone between 18 and 20 can pay taxes, then they should be able to make the decision to drink legally. This is not an issue of trust, but an issue of rights. If you can go to war, then you should be able to drink legally. I know that drinking is dangerous, but so is going to war.
I think the drinking age of 21 is absurd. I am allowed to hold a gun and shoot someone, fly across country to fight for American rights but when I want to enjoy a beer and watch the seminoles play football I have to risk getting arrested? I wish this made sense but it just does not. Government makes rules that contradict themselves. The law is being broken every single day. More teens have fake ids and the liekly hood of getting into a car and driving drunk because they feel like since they were not suppose to be drinking they can not call their parents for a drive. If it was an acceptable things I believe numerous things would change. Have you ever walked through a bar and thought about how many people were there? Then have you ever stopped to realized that about 80% of the occupancy was under the age of 21? Drinking illegally and getting in illegally. The law is just ridiculous.
Lauren D'Lando
CPO2001
T/R 8:35
This is an interesting concept. It does seem odd that one can die for his or her country at age 18, yet cannot be allowed to consume alcohol. However its also interesting that someone can drive a motor vehicle that can travel over one hundred miles an hour, yet not be allowed to vote. The truth is like everything else, their are certain stages in life that lead to the next. at age 16 you can drive a car because you can see over the dash, and you need to get to work or school. at age 18 you can vote because you are out of high school and are considered (to an extent) educated. You can also join the military because you a strong enough now to endure the training, educated enough to understand what is going on around you. However, you are still not there yet. There is a wonderful drill instructor to dictate your every action. Now finally you reach the ripe old age of 21. you can consume as much alcohol as you please. Why? Because your liver is fully matured to handle the alcohol, you are in your final years of higher education to understand life and its risks/rewards. However, you don't just start drawing social security. you have to wait till your older. funny how that works out so well.
Nicholas Conlin
POS 1041
T/R 11:35am
If the laws were passed to provide for the liver to develop properly sure I would have some respect for them, but they weren't. If they were then why hasn't other things we put into our bodies been regulated in such a manner? Take high fructose corn syrup, all those things in twinkies, mercury levels in water which have been set to such a point as to be harmful even though it has been know for over 12 years that it wasn't safe? Simply put it was an arbitrary age set because of a few parents who had children die by drunk drivers who were under 21 and manage to get enough people, people with money, to shame congress into putting a 21 age limit on federal highway funding for the states. Though this causes more harm than good, it is not going to change because the culture has become one that the increase in death due to a population that had been doing the same waiting game would prove those who set the limit at 21, causing a return to 21 before the culture would have time to change itself into one that could control itself better.
Michael Desilets
CPO 2001
T/R 8:35
I completely agree with the original post. The dangers of the binge drinking that is very apparent in people from the age of 17 to 20 shows that the less that alcohol is readily available to people in this age group the more they will consume in a shorter amount of time. The drinking age should be moved back down to 19, allowing young adults to get out of the binge drinking sooner and decreasing the potential for dangerous circumstances under these conditions. At 19 the majority of students are out of high school and living somewhat on their own at least temporarily. Decreased the drinking age would simply relax a drinking environment that is going to exist regardless of the legal age.
Tom Huber
CPO2001 8:35 Tues/Thurs
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