The drinking age varies drastically throughout the world. In many countries you are aloud to drink at as young as sixteen! Some countries don’t have a minimum drinking age at all.
At eighteen you are thrown into the world of adult hood. You are expected to be dependent on yourself (unless you are one of the lucky ones whose parents will still take care of you). You move to college, live on your own or get a job, and even pay taxes. You can vote for the person who will lead our country, and join the army. One of the few things you can not do is drink. Although this law has always bothered me, tt wasn’t until really recently that it really caught my attention.
During winter brake this year a friend of mine came back to visit from
It boggled my mind how at eighteen you can be enlisted in the army and watch people and friends die, but not consume alcohol. I brought this up to my mom and she followed with the answer that many adults tell there children when asked why they can’t drink at eighteen. “At eighteen you are not responsible enough to make that decision. Drinking is a privilege and it can put not just your own life, but others in danger.” At eighteen you are trusted to handle guns and other deadly weapons, but you can’t handle the responsibility to make decision weather or not you want to consume alcohol. This did not make sense to me. If you are able to watch your friends die, handle guns, and experience the fear of almost loosing your life, shouldn’t you be able to sit down and relax with a beer on your vacation in the land you are fighting to protect?
Having the drinking age at 21 is immature for an Army soldier. The age should definitely be brought down to 18 to legally drink if you are able to join the Army and have the right to take ones life. You are right also with the idea that many young adults start their life by leaving for school at 18. America is a very conservative country although, so by having the drinking age higher than lots of other countries it is to protect the teenagers and hopefully prevent them from becoming addicted to alcohol which is a growing epidemic.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with this. I did a debate on this and I cant see how at 18 you become an adult with all these privileges, but you still cant drink alcohol, something that children way younger than you how been drinking forever. This doesn’t make sense. The government lets you give up your body and to risk death and the possibility of getting tortured, but you cannot have a glass of beer. If they didn’t make alcohol such a forbidden fruit like most European countries most people wouldn’t go crazy with trying to get it every weekend when they are teenagers.
ReplyDeleteI too have always wondered why the drinking age is not lowered to 18. About a year ago I posed this question to my brother in law, Ken, who is a Liutenant in the US Navy. He told me about when he was 18, about a decade ago, that most bars would just respect that he was a soldier and serve him regaurdless of his age. He then went on to say that while this is occasionally true now, soilders can get into extreme trouble if caught drinking underage and might even be made to leave the navy. I do not believe this is right, the drinking age should be lowered, if not for everyone then at least for the soldiers protecting our nation.
ReplyDelete