College Presidents asking for a lowered drinking age.

[EternalEnigma21]

Originally Posted by BleedBurgundy

Having lived in Europe for 6 years, I feel somewhat educated on this subject. In each of the countries that I lived or spent a good deal of time in (Iceland, Germany, U.K. and Italy) there was no enforced drinking age. Friends of mine who were brought up in this environment still liked to drink, but there wasn't the insanity that my fellow servicemembers and I would display, oh, every single night. Drinking alcohol does not have all of the connotations that it does here, so there's no real "rebellion" involved in the act of drinking. The people I knew had been drinking for a number of years by the time I knew them (18-20 yrs old) and they handled their alcohol with a maturity that would be uncommon for the average American twenty something.

I agree with the mindset there, wholeheartedly... but we have a completely different culture. Lowering the drinking age to 18 certainly won't evolve us into a culture that looks at drinking casually as young adults.

Recently there were some parents who made the news being prosecuted for having 'alcohol parties' at their house for underage kids. The kids were there with their parents' permission and had their consent to drink at their house. The parents had the sense to make sure that no one drove, and shuttled the kids home safely after the party, if they weren't staying the night. In my opinion these parents were teaching their kids and others responsibility. Plan to have fun, and plan to have safe fun... and of course they were prosecuted for it.

The complete separation of a "good time" and sensibility is the problem in our culture. Its far from an alcohol problem, and anyone who's ever seen "girls gone wild" can certainly attest to that. Kids being kids is one thing, but alcohol and drug fueled orgies, car-hopping, and the multitude of "jackass" stunts on youtube are proof of that.

I don't think ive ever used more quotation marks in a post before.