Praising, panning proposals to lower drinking age
A quick Google News search pops up many editorials and columns from non-college papers against lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, as many college presidents have suggested. Pieces favoring the idea, such is this one from The Depauw, Indiana, are more typical of college student papers:
Opponents of the Amethyst Initiative cannot, must not believe that pounding shots of Kamchatka or Ronrico in a crowded freshman dorm room is the safest way for the children of our country to be initiated into the drinking class. The alternatives should feel much more comforting and conjure images of Americana and family: a glass of wine here and there at Thanksgiving or Easter feasts, a mug of eggnog at a yuletide gala or a bottle of Corona at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Moderation, a virtue nearly absent on this campus, is of principal importance to safe drinking habits.
The Daily Republic of Mitchell, South Dakota:
Anyone who has been to college in the last 20 years can tell you that binge drinking has little to do with the age limit. To me it is a copout by college presidents and trying to shift a problem on college campuses to anyone but themselves.
Scholarly studies abound about why lowering the drinking age is a bad idea, including several showing a direct correlation between alcohol-related traffic fatalities and lower drinking ages. The real solution is a cultural one — valuing moderation and stigmatizing excess. But until that happens — and as long as all-night keggers and Jell-O shot competitions are the rage — current law is exactly where it needs to be.
If the drinking age were lowered from 21 to 18, an initiative currently endorsed by the heads of about 100 colleges and universities nationwide, picture this: Across the country, freshmen will suddenly shun an extra cup of suds from the frat-house keg and refuse one more dip into the Everclear punch. On quarter-beer night, they will return to their dorms with change still jingling in their pockets.
Dodge City [Kansas] Daily Globe:
Binge drinking and alcohol abuse are serious problems on campuses and must be addressed. But university leaders could perhaps more appropriately do so by working together on educational responsible-drinking campaigns. If the presidents’ core issue is safety and health, then the data speaks for itself. The 21 law saves lives.
The presidents of about 100 colleges and universities recently called on federal lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18.That’s right. The leaders of the some of the nation’s largest and most respected educational institutions believe their campuses would be safer places for students to attend if those students could start legally getting blitzed as freshman rather than having to wait until their junior or senior years.
Really?
