U.S. Law states that if you are not 21 you are not mature enough to have a drink. Every day I watch young men and women between the ages of 18 to 20 join our military forces. We tell these young men and women that they are mature enough to go war and pay the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. But when they come home from a combat deployment we tell them a different story, we tell them that in fact they are not mature or responsible enough to go into a bar and have a drink. Therefore my point is that if you are old enough to take up arms and die for your country you are old enough to drink.
The reason why we don’t let people drink before 21 is because of a federal law. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 says that a state will enact a minimum age of 21 to drink or they would be subject to losing 10 percent of their federal highway funding for each year they do not comply with the
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Service members have a different set of priorities and mentality. Not to say that all service members who join are mature beyond their years, but that the process to becoming a Soldier helps speed up the process.
The priorities and maturity that Soldiers develop revolve around the 7 Army values that all Soldiers live by. The values are defined by the Army as follows: “(1) Loyalty: Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S., the Army, unit and other Soldiers. (2) Duty: Fulfill your obligations. (3) Respect: Treat people as they should be treated. (4) Selfless Service: Put the welfare of the Nation, Army, and your subordinates before your own. (5) Honor: Live up to your values. (6) Integrity: Do what’s right, legally and morally. (7) Personal Courage: Face fear, danger or adversity.”
This is a topic that was near and dear to my husband’s heart. As he is in the military, it comes up often during mobilizations for deployment. I drink very little, so I hadn’t given it much consideration until he was deploying himself. I think that military personnel under the age of 21 should be allowed to consume alcoholic beverages under supervision.
Why can’t eighteen year olds drink an alcohol beverage? Ever wonder if they can even handle drinking alcohol these days? What if the eighteen year olds are sent with the parents or someone who is twenty-one or above that age? If they are accompanied by an adult they can handle them and stop them from drinking before they make wrong choices. Once at the age of eighteen they have to sign up for draft or just sign up to immediately join the army or any kind of military position. If they are old enough to fight for the country why not let them have a drink of alcohol. When someone is accompanied by someone who is more mature and responsible usually follows in their footsteps. When at the age of eighteen you can fight choose to go into war for
The third viewpoint on this subject has to do liberty and focus more on freedom than public safety. This argument states that a adult should be allow to drink at the age of 18, because that is the age where in America one becomes an adult. That is the belief Of H.G. Reynolds who is a law professor from the University of Tennessee. He states his argument in the article “Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Drink” which was publish in the Wall Street Journal in Apr. 2011.This article was written in response to Alaska state senator fail to change the drinking age to 18 in his state. Senator Bob Lynn who was a Vietnam Veteran believes that if a person can choose to join the military he is responsible enough to drink alcohol. This law has been
In the United States you are legally an adult at age 18. That entails being able to vote for our president, get married, and even join the military and go to war, but with all these things you still can’t drink legally. The present law says that an 18 year old can go to war where they may lose their life for their country, but you still have to be 21 to drink alcohol. If we allow people to be an legal adult at 18 we should allow them to make that decision to drink.
The legal drinking age is twenty-one. The government has concluded that the mind is mature at age twenty-one. If the mind at twenty-one to drink but not at seventeen shouldn't the legal age to enroll in the military be twenty-one as well. My impression on this is that the immaturity of a seventeen-year-old who is easily persuaded does not have the capacity to make
In the 1970’s, the topic of the legal drinking age grew very popular; most states decided to lower it from 21 to 18 because that was the age to vote and enlist in the army. However, during the 90’s the age was raised back to 21 (Drinking). This was because teens were the most common drunk drivers. “When the drinking age was raised”, there were positive effects, “the number of fatal crashes involving a young driver dropped significantly, from 61% in 1982 to 31% in 1995” (Christensen). But the argument is still here, if one can go to war, why should he or she not be able to take the edge off and indulge in alcoholic beverages? There are compelling arguments for each side, but the drinking age should not be lowered.
Everyone knows that it is illegal to consume alcohol under the age of 21. Why is 21 the 'magical' age that makes a person intelligent and mature enough to consume alcohol? Sure, some adults abuse alcohol and some teenagers would be perfectly able to drink responsibly, but why not 18 or 35 or 40? This seemingly random number, 21, is associated with adulthood, as if the day a person turns 21 they know everything and are mature. The drinking age should be lowered to where one can learn to drink responsibly.
Most of all society has drank, or does drink before the legal age of twenty-one. Just because the law states the legal drinking age is twenty-one does not mean society listens to it. Lowing the drinking age to eighteen could possibly lower the amount of injuries unreported because people would try to seek help instead of trying to keep the problem under the radar. On the other hand people older than eighteen are likely to be more responsible with the actions that person has to deal with. Drinking constantly or being sexually irresponsible is just a few of the concerns of being under twenty-one (Drinking Age ProCon.org). Although the drinking age is twenty-one underage teenagers still have a source to get alcohol and to consume it, so to lower the age to eighteen would keep the underage drinking down.
In the end, I believe that if the United States view 18 year- olds as adults when it comes to voting and marriage, then they should be viewed as adults when it comes to drinking too. If 18 year olds are allowed to put their lives at risk for our nation, then why shouldn’t they be viewed as old enough to buy and enjoy
First, one reason the drinking age is 21 is because the United States Mothers Against Drunk Driving program wants to make sure a teen’s brain develops to maturity in order for them to be able to drink alcohol. The argument that congress had in the 70’s was, “If young Americans could be entrusted to vote, serve on a jury and fight in Vietnam, why couldn 't they order a beer?”(Griggs). If Americans are allowed to vote, fight in the wars and serve on jury all at the age of 18, what is the difference in them being able to go out and buy some alcohol? This side of the argument
The current drinking age should not be lowered to 18 despite the responsibilities that are given at that age. While at age 18 teenagers receive a handful of new choices and responsibilities. Of those some may argue that if at 18 teenagers can join the military and are ultimately risking their life that they also should be able have the choice of consuming alcohol. Along with everything else granted to an 18-year-old as they enter adulthood it is not enough to lower the legal drinking age. Let us start with the strongest comment of this argument, joining the military. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, describe the types of occupations and the number of enlisted personals in each occupation in a table. The table includes the total amount of personals enlisted in combat specialty for all branches of military at 151,501(Table 1).
The legal drinking age in the United States is twenty one years old, the age is three years higher than the legal drinking age in many developed countries around the world. At eighteen years of age most legal rights are given, an individual may chose to enlist in the military, sign a contract without parental consent, and is responsible for all actions however is prohibited from drinking alcohol.
In the United States, the legal drinking age is 21+, but to join any branch of the United States military you must be 18+ unless your parents to give consent at 17. This raises the question, “Why can you fight and die for your country but not be old enough to drink?” I am going to agree with this statement, if you are legally an adult by 18 then why shouldn’t you be able to make your own decisions? The main reason every state has the age for legal alcohol consumption at 21 is because congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. Making the legal alcohol consumption age 21 raises more problems than if it were at 18 instead.
When they have the opportunity to drink, they do so in an irresponsible manner because drinking by these youth is seen as a badge of rebellion against authority and a symbol of adulthood. Clearly, this kind of devious attitude does not encourage responsible drinking.
Well, you are telling me that I can legally kill someone at the age of eighteen, while I sign up with the military and go to war but I can’t have a sip of alcohol. Due to this none senseless situation, age should be equaled. In other words, if voting and military sign up is eighteen, then drinking should also be eighteen. Besides at the age of eighteen you are legally an adult. Why can’t we drink then? Drinking age in Australia is eighteen, and in UK is as low as sixteen in restaurants. Studies have showed that those teens/adults are perfectly fine. In fact, Dr. Ruth Engs; professor of Applied Health Sciences at Indiana University in Bloomington, uses this examples to propose the following: “……the drinking age be lowered to about 18 or 19 and permit those of legal age to consume in socially controlled environment such as restaurants and official school and university functions” (direct quote from Dr. Engs).