I was enjoying a fine dinner at a friend's house the other night when his 21-year-old roommate grabbed a beer from their fridge and sat down to drink it with his meal. This small, frequent action reminded me that I, and all other people under the age of 21, am still a child in the government's eyes.
My mother shares stories with me about her college days. She tells me about the parties that she would go to and the sit-ins and the activism and protests. We then get into a discussion about drinking now.
"You should be able to drink alcohol legally," she tells me, and of course, I agree.
Why shouldn't people under 21 drink? Why is the drinking age so high? Why am I, and others like me, unable to enjoy all of the rights of a citizen in the United States? Isn't this supposed to be the "land of the free"?
All of these questions stirred a small search on the World Wide Web.
On March 29, the National Youth Rights Association, a group that, according to them, defends the civil and human rights of young people, started sponsoring a campaign about the issue on a college campus in Vermont.
One representative of the group reminded his audience that people who are 18 can freely marry without parental consent, vote and serve in the military. They also must pay taxes. Yet, people ages 18, 19 and 20 cannot drink a beer without receiving a large minor consumption ticket.
After Prohibition, most states set a drinking age at 18 or 19. However, people who still supported the Prohibition movement were still influential in the government, and they pushed for a higher minimum drinking age, supporting their fight with arguments that car accidents involving alcohol were highest among people under the age of 21.
The federal government gave in to these groups and made a grant that gave states extra transportation money if they raised the drinking age to 21 in the National Uniform Drinking Age Act, which was signed in 1984.
Let us now take a moment to remember that the drinking age is a STATE concern, not a federal one. The people in the national government once again decided that they can circumvent the Constitution and take duties that are not theirs. More recently, the federal government has done this with education, too, but that is another story, a different column.
Louisiana was the last state to change their drinking age. However, the National Youth Rights Association (NYRA) has been fighting the legislation since its beginnings in 1991.
According to the NYRA, Vermont would lose $9.7 million from its transportation budget if the state's representatives chose to change the drinking age, but those costs would be offset by the increased sales tax revenues from fewer people driving to Canada to buy their alcohol.
It would also increase tourism and college enrollment in the state.
The drinking age needs to be lowered. Eighteen-year-olds should be considered complete citizens of the United States and not a lower class of individuals who must pay taxes and still not receive full rights from the government.
Write to Jessica at
jfkerman@bsu.edu
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