To begin with, the bruhaha begins with the premise that we are discussing "kids". Their legal status is "Adult" once they turn 18. This arbitrary number, like 19 or 20 or 21, is not a measure of maturity, ability or responsibility. Because we cannot quantify these subjective aspects of a person, we pick 18 for most things, except drinking. Younger, in some states, for marriage…but that is a different story, right? It sounds to me like the current discussion implies that "College Students" are the only 18 to 20 year olds (or for that matter any age) that get into drunken accidents, experiment with drugs or start the long march to degradation. What makes 18 any more secure than 21?
While it is great that this discussion is being brought up by college presidents, who will represent the other 75% of 18 to 20 year old adults in this matter. Are they to be considered less mature or less able to control themselves because they have not sat through Poli-Sci 101 or Bio 101?
And lastly, I can understand why it is true on-campus, but why is it the colleges' responsibility to keep students from drinking off campus? The students are adults, responsible for their own actions under the law. I certainly cannot blame my college Dean for a DWI or worse at 40, why can I (or my parents’ lawyers) do it at 20?
Title by: Mojo Nixon
5 comments:
A funny thing about University of Maryland's prez signing the petition is that, apparently, the city of College Park doesn't trust legal drinkers to drink responsibly when faced with temptation. The city council successfully pressured bar owners to set the minimum price of beer at $1.
Have you ever kicked back and have a cold one with Mr. P.?
I have not. It is an inappropriate boundary. I should be familiar without becoming "family".
We have been out to lunch together, which is nearly inappropriate enough. But, they are usually working lunches where we spend as much time talking about the houses as anything else.
I would think it depends on the state laws -- those that have 21 as legal drinking age would mean that the 'children' become the responsibility (liability) of the college attended--given the litigious nature of much of this country, and many not wanting to be responsible for their own actions, the college prez's must protect their ass-ets (the college) as best they can.
Because of liability issues, a Student where P Jr. attended summer program had room searched for weapons when said Student mockingly threatened another violently--upon search of the room about an ounce of pot was discovered and the underage student was expelled from the summer program.
Contraband is a felony, as I suppose, underage drinking is...the responsibility falls to those who take in the youngsters--they have to be vigilant to allow the compliant ones a safe and productive environment...lawsuits on these issues would only increase the cost of many college tuitions--and why should you have to worry about that added cost for the Things in the not-too-distant future?!
Post a Comment