View from the Green
Bob is a retired education administrator who was an academic administrator for a local university for 28 years and spent almost 10 years as an administrator/manager at an educational association in Brookfield. He and his wife now run a small consulting business called DeRoche Consulting LLC.
The Drinking Age
This seems strange to me and perhaps illogical: We say to an 18, 19 or 20 year old “you can join the armed services and go to Iraq or Afghanistan and possibly be killed, but you can’t have a beer with a buddy in your hometown when you are home. We had the same issue during the Vietnam War. Does this make sense to you? If I am in this age group, why am I mature enough to go to war, but not mature enough to drink alcoholic beverages? I know some people will not like this suggestion, but why don’t we change the drinking age. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 states that revenue will be withheld from states that allow the purchase of alcohol by anyone under the age of 21. Naturally, most states adhere to the law because they don’t want federal revenue funds withheld particularly with regard to road projects. It wasn’t always this way. From March 1972 to 1984 the drinking age in Wisconsin for all alcoholic beverages was 18. Even in 1984 it was raised to 19 until 1986 when it was finally raised to 21. I propose we change the law. It doesn’t have to be 18; why not 19 or 20? I like 19. It gets you away from the high school crowd, but still gives you some privileges. Another suggestion would be to allow beer only for those 18 and older. Any change to 18 or 19, would also require a lot of consumption education. In other words, drink responsibly. The concern here is that you can go to war and you can vote at 18, but you can’t drink. It doesn’t make sense. Let’s allow young people who have been serving together to come home and have a drink together, or maybe, even have a drink in a bar with their parents.
2 COMMENTS
WFB resident - Dec 02, 2010 12:07 AM - Report Abuse
where I came from and the problems with alcohol are minimal there
compared to here in the USA !! By the way the teenage violence problems
are lower also ! I personally started drinking as young as I can remember (4)
I think and to this day I might have 1 or 2 beers a week !! some times 1 or
2 a month !! Of course in this state the law says that you can have a drink
with your parents at any age ! If i am mistaken please inform me . But that
will not change how I raise my 6 kids !! These comments may seem
outlandish to USAmericans but so is nudity !!
SunshineK - Dec 20, 2010 12:34 PM - Report Abuse
Maybe we should add an amendment to the current laws that allow anyone with a military ID to consume alcohol. This may sound a little elitist but why do ALL 18, 19, and 20 year-olds have to benefit from all the sacrifices of our young military heroes? Let the veteran young people have this little advantage.