The Amethyst Initiative

For those of you who aren't aware, there is a movement called the Amethyst Initiative that is fighting to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. As I have an opinion on nearly everything, I must remark on this interesting idea.

While I understand the move to lower the drinking age, I also see so many problems with it.

Here are some important opinions I have regarding age limits. I promise I'll make sense of it later: 1) I think in regards to the drinking age that those who are old enough to fight in war are old enough to drink. 2) I also think that 18 year-olds are plenty old enough to vote.

Okay, so here is my hopefully coherent opinion:

What a ridiculous idea! I turned 18 at the beginning of my senior year of high school. While I was somewhat responsible and never would have purchased alcohol for my still underage friends, we can't expect that everyone is that responsible.

Now, allow me to draw in the previous comments I promised I would tie together. Yes, I do think that if you are old enough to be drafted into the military you are also old enough to buy alcohol. While I don't condone drinking, I do think that it is a double standard that kids can die for their country but can't even buy themselves a drink. So, since I don't think that the drinking age should be lowered to age 18, I do think that maybe the draft age should be raised.

Now this brings me to the voting comment: when 18 year-old males register to vote, they also register themselves into the draft. While this is an easy process, it also means that if the draft age were raised, some people might want to keep the draft and vote registering process as a single action. That poses the problem that 18 year-olds would no longer be able to vote. I truly felt that at 18 I was old enough to make educated decisions regarding elections and I voted in the very first election that I could. So, here's my solution:

Make the drinking age and draft age the same, but don't lower the drinking age to 18. At the same time, keep the voting age at 18. While we're messing around with age limits, why don't we go ahead and raise the smoking age to the same age as the drinking and draft age at the same time? After all, smoking causes all sorts of problems too. I understand that this poses a problem for kids who are wanting to join the military straight out of high school. I think if I remember correctly that my grandpa was able to have his father give permission for him to join the military because he was actually too young to sign up for himself. That way, kids who want to can join.

Perhaps there is another option we all aren't considering. What's so special about 21 anyway? What about 20? That seems good. By then people are out of high school and I really don't think that 20 is much different than 21 anyway.