I'm a server at a restaurant that serves alcohol, which means I play a major role in getting people drunk.
It also means, however, that I occasionally encounter people younger than 21 who attempt to buy alcohol with fake IDs.
Under Indiana state law, selling alcohol to a minor, even unknowingly, constitutes a Class C misdemeanor. A server, bartender or cashier who violates the law will be fired and fined up to $500.
Most servers can distinguish real IDs from fakes. However, poor lighting, lack of experience, tiredness and busyness can all contribute to slipups. Minors who try to buy alcohol with fake IDs should remember that many servers wait tables to feed their families and pay the bills. Getting fired for serving booze to a minor could mean getting kicked out of one's apartment.
To make things easier, I think the drinking age should be lowered to 18, just as it used to be.
In 1984, Congress gave the states two choices: Raise the drinking age to 21 or lose federal funding for road building. Understandably, the states complied, and the fake ID industry took off from there.
Underage drinking is synonymous with college, even here at Ball State University.
Just look at some of the photos students unwisely post on Facebook.
Regardless of how they get the alcohol, it's clear that the law doesn't work. And even if it did work, what's the point?
The problem here is not the availability of alcohol, but American drinking culture. While the French carefully pair wines with different foods, and the Chinese enjoy raucous drinking games at banquets and dinner parties as a show of camaraderie, Americans drink to get drunk.
After Americans take hits off their beer bongs or do keg stands and fill their stomachs with alcoholic club soda such as Bud Light, they throw up, black out and wake up the next morning with hangovers. They then call their friends and brag to them, "Dude, I got, like, so plastered last night," blaming their bad behavior on the alcohol, much like the anti-Semitic frat boys in the "Borat" movie.
The illegality of drinking under the age of 21 contributes to our morbid drinking culture.
The fact that underage drinking occurs underground makes it difficult to regulate. The desire to get drunk as quickly as possible without any authority figures finding out creates an incentive to binge drink. If you're 21, however, you can simply go to a bar, knock a couple back and then go home.
Lowering the drinking age to 18 would be great for business, as bars and restaurants that serve alcohol would get more customers. Also, 20-year-olds often live away from home and their parents' authority, while 17-year-olds are still legally children under parental guardianship. For that reason, stopping a 17-year-old from drinking is easier than stopping a 20-year-old.
Until we lower the drinking age, however, please don't try to buy alcohol if you haven't reached the legal age. Next time you reach for your fake ID, contrast your desire for the short-term gain of looking cool, feeling grown-up and having a good time with the fact that you could get the person who serves you in a lot of trouble.
Drinking a daiquiri or a martini doesn't make you look "of age"; understanding the effects your actions have on others does.
Alaric DeArment is a senior journalism major and writes 'The Dork Report' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Write to Alaric at ajdearment@bsu.edu.
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