Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Rough Draft

Based on the concepts of the drinking age a compromise has come up. “Rather than tinkering with the drinking age, we should ensure that young people are better prepared for the joys and dangers of alcohol way before they approach adulthood” (You can…). Since the Act gave us the legal drinking age in the last half century. Now we see that Act fall apart because more and more teens are consuming alcohol at an earlier age. “Boulder Police Chief Beckner says that having a law that makes the consumption of alcohol beverages illegal by many college students may contribute to the problem of heavy or "binge" drinking”(McCardell). In addition to this, some teens do it just to rebel against their parents for the leash they had on them.

Eighteen: a lot happen at that age. For example, you can enlist in the army when you are age and even go to war. Marriage and being able to vote for candidate happen. Nevertheless, why cannot an eighteen year old enjoy an alcoholic beverage? Some citizens say because they lack maturity and they binge often. Mostly the act of 1984 was developed because of Candy Lightner, “president of MADD, whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver a few years earlier”(Koroknay – Palicz). Based on what the president of Middlebury College said, since we are adults at 18, the lower drinking age would provide less abusive drinking. However with this implemented, people who are eighteen would have to get a drinking license. If you think about it should be legal for an 18-year old to drink since we can enlist in the army, vote, be married, and even convicted as an adult for any crime. All the time the law is bent but it never breaks. Therefore the Drinking Act should stay enforced but with some exemptions and corrects to help the states determine whether or not the state governments will decide to let the drinking be lowered for the eighteen year olds. Teens drink because they are curious and wonder what it feels like to be drunk. “They believe that it will make them feel good, not realizing it could just as easily make them sick and hung-over” (Dowshen).

Some research I have found shows even now most of the high school senior in the nation drink alcohol at least once a month. However, with the issues of today’s media exaggerates both sides of this mediate and it lead to a stalemate. When they think about lowering the age, some positives do come up like a drinking permit but it would probably be for low alcohol beverages instead of hard liquor. Even Prof. Geller said, “U.S. government should raise the enlistment age from 18 to 21 years old”. This is corresponding to the lowering of the drinking since we already know a lot of freedom come you are of age.


Works Cited

Koroknay – Palicz, Alex. “Legislative Analysis for the National Minimum Drinking Age Act.” 2008 Apr. 19. http://www.asfar.org/zine/5th/cover.html

Geller, Jeffery. “21-year-old drinking age unfair”. The New York Times, April 1, 2008. Massachusetts. 22 Apr. 2008. http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?risb=21_T3585354005&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T3585354008&cisb=22_T3585354007&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&selRCNodeID=13&nodeStateId=411en_US,1,5&docsInCategory=202&csi=8213&docNo=2.

McCardell, Jr., John. “What your college president didn't tell you?” The New York Times, September 14, 2004; Hughes, Jim. College drinking on rise: Colorado nabs more minors. Denver Post, September 27,2004.

"You can join the army, vote, but you may soon be too young to drink; Comment.(Features)." Sunday Times (London, England) (Jan 13, 2008): 15. Academic OneFile. Gale. Clemson University. 15 Apr. 2008
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1 comment:

MR. MILLION said...

Ricardo, Ricardo. Don't slack off on this assignment.