HERALD EDITORIAL

For most of our generation, and a few before us, underage drinking has been seen as taboo and risqué. Some of us have participated because we felt pressured and wanted to fit in. Some of us participated for far worse reasons; prone to addictions, needed an “escape,” trying to solve a problem, etc. But for the younger generations to come, they might not have to worry about all that.

The Amethyst Initiative is a proposal designed by college and university presidents nationwide asking for a debate on whether or not the legal drinking age of 21 should be changed.

“The context of this initiative does not necessarily propose lowering the drinking age, it proposes a discussion about the current age requirement,” said Western Michigan University President John Dunn.
“I think it’s misunderstood by the press and that’s one of the reasons I chose not to sign it,” Dunn said.

The initiative’s Web site, www.amethystinitiative.org, makes it very clear they want a discussion and not just an automatic law reversal.

So far over 120 college and university presidents have signed the initiative, including presidents from Duke University, Dartmouth College, Johns Hopkins University and Ohio State University.

According to the Web site’s statement, the legal drinking age of 21 is not proving as effective as lawmakers would’ve hoped. It claims a culture of “binge-drinking” has been created among the 18 to 20-year-old age group.

According to the Web site, since the drinking age has been 21, traffic fatalities caused by drunken teens has gone down but there’s also been a steep rise in suicides, drowning and other non-traffic alcohol-related deaths. Delaying the drinking age has reduced the number of youths who do drink underage, but has shown the ones who do drink consume more.

“In today’s society, we have evidence there may be more of a current problem with binge drinking than we’ve seen in other times,” said Dunn. “But I don’t think it’s any more prevalent on this campus than others.”

One of the key arguments the Amethyst Initiative, and countless others, makes is if someone’s able to vote, sign a contract, go to jail and be sent off to war, shouldn’t they be allowed to have a beer before they go?

“It should be a question of maturity, not chronological age,” said Dunn. “Maybe in some ways that makes it easier to have a well defined barrier, but at the same time we know people do develop and mature at different levels.”

Many researchers and proponents of lowering the drinking age cite the age-less climate in Europe and claim that’s the kind of taboo-less atmosphere we should be striving for. But Europe has many differences from America besides not having a drinking age.

Overall, Europe is a much more socially progressive society than ours. For example, the Netherlands has a non-restrictive abortion law and also has one of the lowest abortion rates in the world while women die in America everyday from illegal abortions.

In Amsterdam, marijuana is legal and there have been no major societal problems while we lock up hundreds for carrying a plant in their pocket. In Denmark, gay civil unions have existed since 1989 while we still debate over the religious quality of marriage.

For America to catch up with Europe in terms of drinking, we have a lot of ground to cover first and dealing with the drinking age could be the first step.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=360

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Sep 10 2008. Filed under Editorial, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com