Posted on 08/26/2008 7:21:38 AM PDT by AJKauf
there are two choices:
1) Raise the age of consent, conscription, and voting, to 21
2) Lower the drinking age back to 18.
I’m fine with either one, but it should be consistent.
The worldwide minimum drinking age chart is telling:
http://www.icap.org/policyissues/youngpeoplesdrinking/agelawstable/tabid/219/default.aspx
Here’s and easy fix. If your 18 and carry an Active Duty, Reserve, or National Guard ID card, (that you have earned by completing the required training) your legal. Otherwise, wait till your 21.
yes this is a law in the US i will never understand.
i mean you are old enought to get shot in iraq but you are not old enought to order a beer?
I am really torn on this subject. I know that I hate being in places when a group of 21 year olds come in and start getting wrecked. What would it be like with a bar full of 18 year olds?
I think however, that if you are in the military, you can drink. Luckily, I was stationed in TX and it was still 18 while most states had gone to 21.
I also think that these college presidents are being very disengenious. They want the kids to be able to leave campus and go get drunk and die OFF campus and not in a dorm.
Why not make the drinking age 14 and really introduce safe drinking at an earlier age?
If 18 is an adult, then let the adult drink. If 18 is not an adult, then you can’t let them vote or throw them in adult prison.
Using a fake military ID to get alcohol means that you give up your real driver's license for three years or until you turn 21, whichever comes last.
Not to mention paying taxes and being able to vote.
Freegards
Why not make the drinking age 14 and really introduce safe drinking at an earlier age?
When I was growing up the age was 18, I don’t think it is a big deal. You are considered an adult in every other way. I was watching on the news the other day where there are college presidents that want to look into changing the age back to 18. It was government blackmail that made states go to 21, apparently if you did not change the age it effected the states money for highways. Thats blackmail!
Actually... A fake Govenment ID is a Federal Crime (Felony)since it is a Controlled Government Document. A DL is not because it is a State issued card and is a privilage not a right.
What I don’t understand is... Everywhere else to include Europe the children are weened on alcohol and are given wine at the dinner table. They do not have a major issue like we do. It is the mystic that makes it so when they become of age, they are breaking out of the hardened shell and begin to make up for 20 years of being told no.-— Just my thought and feelings on it.
agreed, if an 18 year old can get shot at in war he deserves the right to crack a cold one.
Do you mean that military dependents with IDs should not be included? If so, I agree - if not, I’m not sure how somebody would secure a military member ID without having “completed the required training”.
Colonel, USAFR
...we got enough troubles with adult drinking as it is...why add the 18 year olds to the mix?....if they want to drink on base, then let the military make the regulations.
I agree. Some college Presidents have suggested lowering the drinking age to 18 to make it more like europe where drinking is not as big a deal. Well, as you say, that is not always true.
Also, when the drinking age was 18, in most bars, pretty girls got in at 15 and 16.
You shouldn't be. We send out youths to college, where they are separated from home supervision - a challenge that may are not able to handle. With the drinking age at 21, we again separate our youths from any chance of supervison or socialization with those knowledgable with drinking alcohol, a potentially deadly pursuit. Why is it good to have such a "failure trap"?
It is far better to permit consumption under more controlled circumstances, where behavior is in the open and subject at least to greater socialization. It is always good to keep ourselves in flocks, rather than alone in a wilderness.
Unless 18-year-old drinker wannabees go through a similarly rigorous training regimen re alcohol, its effects, and how to behave re drinking, they should have no more right to drink than an untrained civilian kid does to go into combat.
I’m fine with either one, but it should be consistent.
***A third alternative is that if someone is in the military they get an exemption from the law, or something along those lines.
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