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Coming of Age
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Coming of Age
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| I believe that they should be allowed to drink if they are allowed to vote or serve their country in the military. The age of 18 is also the age of being tried as an adult in the courts as well. We should be consistant with what we expect of adults. | |
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Invincible, irrational adolescents
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One of the main reasons that our volunteer military works so well is precisely because a large majority of the "fighting troops" are between 18 and 21. During this time of life, most people (especially males) feel invincible and that they can do anything with little risk of harm. This characteristic makes them particularly good at fighting, but also allows for some very skewed and poor judgment in other areas, such as drinking responsibly. Research has showed that parts of the brain responsible for control and judgment are still developing until about age 25. With all due respect to college students who ARE responsible, this may explain the incredible stupidity I witness from a lot of college students. Way back in the day, I was a Marine, and in a few place I was stationed, while not technically legal, alcohol was openly served to military personnel, regardless of age. I have to confess that I did not drink responsibly at that time, and am thankful that I did not harm anyone. I don't think you can compare the right to vote with the privilege to drink alcohol. Irresponsible actions in the voting booth may be balanced out by other votes, but the casualties of irresponsible drinking are immediate and irreversible. Of course, there are some 25-40 year-olds who do not drink responsibly, but they are in the minority, and should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. |
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Coming of Age
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While I respect the point of view of my brother Veteran Marine who commented about this, here is my point of view as a former U.S. Army Sergeant, Near-death Combat Wounded. To me it is absolutely ludicrous that less than 1% of our population is making the huge personal sacrifice of serving in our military, is on 2nd, 3rd, & 4th tours of duty in Afghanistan & Iraq due to "stop loss", yet the other 99% of our population smugly & arrogantly presumes to decide whether the one-percenters are mature enough to drink alcohol at age eighteen. I believe anyone serving in the military has a military ID card which should allow them to drink at eighteen (or even earlier if they are enable to enlist younger). This ought to be a Federal law, not a State law. This ought to be one of the very few perks we give our military people - and we don't give them enough perks! I do not believe, however, that civilians should be allowed to drink at 18 for good reassons already presented by previous comments, & because the non-military segment of our society is too lax. Military service gives young people focus & discipline. I spent a year in combat zone as an "older" soldier (25) keeping younger soldiers from getting killed by poor choices made, by keeping them focused & out of trouble. The military institution can easily handle any 18-year-old who steps over the line by abusing his or her drinking priveleges that should be inherent in serving this country. |
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credit where credit is due
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While I agree with the sentiment expressed by birdwhisperer1, it is important to recognize from whence our state laws come from. The establishment of a legal drinking age is a jealously guarded state's right, and in Montana it was written into our 1972 constitution. If memory serves me right, our drinking age (like all adult rights) was granted at 18, and in 1978 it was amended to 19. Fast forward to 1986, and the federal congress threatened to withold federal highway funds to all states that didn't raise their drinking age to 21. So Montana amended Section 14 of our constitution one more time, granting the adult right of drinking alcohol to our state legistlature, who of course capitluated and raised it to 21. So the other 99% of our population does not smugly and arrogantly presume to decide the drinking age of our brave soldiers and servicemen. We are being financially held hostage by 535 representatives and senators (and their lobbyists) in a far away land. If you want to make a change, rather than blaming we the people direct your efforts to Washington DC starting with Tester, Bacus, and Rehberg. And thank you, bcmontana and birdwhisperer1, for your service to our country. |
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Separate but Equal
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Would it be possible, then, to have separate laws governing alcohol being served to service members and not the general underage population? Or would it just be one more fake ID to add to the collection? How would it be regulated? Would it only be for those on active duty? And what of the "They're drinking ANYWAY!" school of thought? Any comments to that? |
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Let them drink!
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I am a vet after 8 1/2 years active duty Army and by experience both in the military and out, that 18-year-old service members are a heck of a lot more responsible than your average civilian 18-year-old. If it were to become legal, the law should be federally regulated since soldiers work for the feds. As for the fake ID issue? The newer ID cards are not easy to replicate and all it would take is for a bit of training for bartenders, liquor stores and grocery stores to identify frauds. And its true-they are drinking anyways. Make it sort of an incentive for recruiting. This would be a way of showing teenagers "hey, we support you and since you are responsible enough to fight for our country, we support you in being responsible enough to drink." |
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coming of age
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I am a male that has thought of this arguement many times. I have heard many arguements to lower the age of drinking over the past 20 yrs since I turned 18. I think there is another side to this, how about raising the age of adulthood to make thing equal. If a young person can not drink till 21, lets make it that they can not vote or as a male they do not have to sign up for the draft till the age of 21. It is my belief that if by law I had to sign up to be drafted by the military that I should have been able to drink as well. If I was respected enough for my age to be able to vote I should have been resected enough to drink. So if our minds are not developed enough to be responsible drinkers maybe it is not developed enough to be responsible in the booth to make good decisions on who should be running this great country we live in. Thanks to all the men and women that defend our country, I wish I would have been allowed to be by your sides. |
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RE: coming of age
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| My point exactly, I'm not necessarily advocating lowering the drinking age. I'm just trying to say that the current law is unfair. | ||
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drinking age
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I'm in favor of keeping the legal age for drinking where it is. Inebriated people don't make good soldiers, drivers, workers, parents, voters, anything. Alcoholism is a great social cost to the nation already. I've heard plenty about addiction/alcoholism/mental illness requiring more & more social service programs to rescue the ones who've wasted their potential/lives for the pleasure of alcohol/drugs/gambling. People used to know/realize the dangers of alcoholism. What happened? There was a reason Prohibition was tried. |
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In Montana it isn't even on the plate, I suspect...
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| ...especially after the disaster with our former Governor Judy Martz' close dealings with one of her, let's say, crew. I hope it will be kept at 21, and for alot of reasons there is no good reason to make the change. | |
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Drinking age
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| I think the same way as bzmoutdoorman. We shouldn't be lowering the age for drinking but raising the age of what is considered an adult. The age for joining the military, voting, drinking and in the court of law should be 21. When it comes to such important things in life 18 is just not old enough. I have a son that's turning 20 and the comprehension of life is just not there yet; he's getting there but he sure wasn't anywhere close to it at 18. I'm still trying to get him to understand the need to: Think then Act and not to Act then Think. | |
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When we drink, we get drunk..
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When we get drunk we go to sleep. When we go to sleep we commit no sin. When we commit no sin we go to heaven. So let's all get drunk and go to heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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