In July 2008, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger joined 133 other college presidents and chancellors across the country when he signed the Amethyst Initiative, an association promoting reconsideration of the legal drinking age in America with hopes of lowering it from 21 to 18.
When I initially heard about this group, my reaction was that of a typical college student -- excitement. Since then, however, I've realized that even if Congress took the idea of lowering the drinking age seriously, the logic behind this movement is terribly flawed. And downright dangerous.
According to the Amethyst Initiative's Web site, it doesn't necessarily support a specific policy change. Instead, it says the organization calls upon "elected officials to weigh all the consequences of current alcohol policies and to invite new ideas on how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use."
Sounds legitimate enough. Making good decisions about alcohol use isn't something anyone is going to argue against. But then its Web site goes on to stress that an epidemic of dangerous binge-drinking runs rampant on college campuses, and 134 college presidents believe that's reason enough to rethink the drinking age.
The whole idea makes me think of getting a driver's license. If we compare the two situations, it makes no sense to grant someone a license if they haven't passed the learner's permit test. I certainly don't want to be on the road with people who can't identify what a red octagon means. So why should young people be rewarded with a lower drinking age when we haven't proved ourselves responsible enough to drink at age 18? We shouldn't be granted the privilege of drinking simply because we've demonstrated we can't handle it when it's illegal. Furthermore, I'm not impressed by 134 college presidents agreeing on anything. Considering the random assortment of schools listed, with signatories ranging from the giant University of Maryland at College Park to the almost unheard of Kapiolani Community College, it's obvious that the head of almost every higher learning institution in America was approached and asked to sign.
According to data provided by the Digest of Educational Statistics in 2005, that would include 2,533 four-year colleges and universities and 1,683 two-year schools. If anywhere near that number of people were asked to sign, 134 is not an impressive number by any means. In fact, a statistic that should speak volumes is the number of presidents who chose not to sign.
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Personal freedom. Plain and simple. If 18 is the arbitrarily chosen age of majority for everything else in this country, it should be for drinking as well. The logic there is not flawed. For those who believe that the government should allow people the freedom to act as they please, even if that means allowing self-destructive behavior, the logic is airtight.
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A note on the comparison to getting a driver's license. With out a doubt, 16-20 year olds have a higher incident of traffic accidents. If we raised the legal driving age to 20, those statistics for 16-20 year olds will go down. However, it will be entirely offset by an increase of traffic accidents of 20-24 year olds. The logic also holds true for alcohol use.
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My personal belief is that if a young man/woman can join the military at the age of 18, they should be allowed to have a beer/drink legally. Why is the drinking age 21, when for almost everything else, 18 is the age of majority? While this may not really change anything, at least the laws would be consistent.
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It is already happening and ppl who do it responsibly are still being arrested for it. You are proving nothing by keeping the age high because ppl who want to binge drink do it anyhow, just lower it and hopefully ppl will become more responsible with it because they have more exposure and less reason to drink all that is in sight.
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