18 Year Old Drinking Age

This is a letter to the Daily Pilot that I wrote in answer to the front page article about a young man who wants to change the drinking age to 18 - Again!

It always amazes me that every generation fights the same issue of the drinking age.Usually the main reason is the military one. If they are old enough to put their lives on the line in combat they are old enough to drink. Eric Paine is not old enough to have seen the results of a lowered drinking age in my time (I am 63).

In this generation of "helicopter parents" and children whose main decision has been what game to play on the internet I don't believe that they are ready for EITHER option. I have talked to parents who 18 year old have gone into the service and they agree with me that at the very least a soldier should not be assigned to combat before 21 years old.

Young men and women at 18 are not old enough or mature enough to realize what they are doing when they sign up for the military. Because of my age I read the obituaries on a daily basis. Every day there are young men (and women) whose lives have ended before 21. It is terrible enough when the person is in his late 20s or 30s, but it is horrific if they are younger than 21 and starting out in life.

I realize that the argument against this is there already is a shortage of individuals available for military service. And 18 year olds are much easier to convince than 21 year olds. And what will the high school graduates with no college ambition do? Does this mean we need to sacrifice young lives? I don't think so. Just wait until they are a bit older - and 21 still isn't that old - then send them into combat. The reality of life will be clearer and their judgment will have improved through 3 years of non-combat military training.

Finally, I went to college in the 60s and 70s when some of the states had the 18 year old drinking age. Binge drinking was rampant then. It is part of college, unfortunately. It won't go away by letting kids drink at a younger age.

We live in a different society than our forbears whose young children worked on the farm and in factories. 400 years ago people were old at 35 and dead at 45. The stages of our lives were smaller - children had to grow up at a young age and were parents and soldiers in their teens. The average age of a bride has risen considerably in the last century. Isn't it time we rethink what is the actual maturity age for a person in the 21st century? I think so. 18 year olds are not, for the most part, grownups in the protective environment they grow up in this day and age.