<p>The parent in me is not advocating your going out to drink, but my own kid is not going to ask my permission to drink. Just doing what I do, pass on information.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2005030901070[/url]”>http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2005030901070</a></p>
<p>How funny- I was just reading that, and I refreshed this page, and your thread showed up. :p</p>
<p>I personally think it’s logical. If you can be drafted, you can have a beer. I mean, come on.</p>
<p>I don’t drink so I could care less…</p>
<p>Why is it that it seems like kids from rural and suburban areas tend to drink alcohol on a more regular basis(maybe I am just ignorant about the facts or something)? </p>
<p>I mean, a lot of people I know smoke pot but not too many people I know drink beer and stuff. I have a sweet tooth so beer is disgusting to me. What say you Greenies?</p>
<p>wonderful idea. but, wouldn’t the fed govt withold funding from highways in that case?</p>
<p>funniest line from that article: </p>
<p>Hutchinson pondered how Dartmouth would respond if the bill were passed.</p>
<p>“The best thing the College could do would be to set up a toll booth on the Ledyard Bridge,” he said. “Then they could lower tuition by a half.”</p>
<p>that had me laughing for a while today.</p>
<p>What’s Ledyard Bridge?</p>
<p>The Ledyard Bridge spans the Connecticut River separating Vermont from NH and leads to the Dartmouth college campus. Warning, Dartmouth students start doing the happy dance as they cross the bridge because they are smost home</p>
<p>Bad idea. Horrible idea. I hate it. </p>
<p>Just because you can be drafted doesn’t mean the drinking age should be lowered. Maybe it means the “drafting age” should be higher. Plus we don’t draft anymore.</p>
<p>We could, it just hasn’t happened recently. The ability to do so is still within the president’s power.</p>
<p>And c’mon… I’m sure the majority of kids under 21 drink, or have done so. If you can vote, then why can’t you drink? I think 18 should be the age for everything (yes, including driver’s licenses).</p>
<p>It just seem slike at 18, you’re legally considered an adult, but you just don’t get all the privelages. That seems strange to me.</p>
<p>well, ages for everything except drinking and voting differ all over the place. Ages of consent and driver’s license and even marrying ages are different in numerous states, and that’s their right to have those differences.</p>
<p>This is an issue where the policy doesn’t match reality. They could have a drinking age of 0 or 50, it wouldn’t matter, because the same people would drink roughly the same amounts of liquor. Its all relative.</p>
<p>That comment about tolls on the bridge…I’m still laughing.</p>
<p>Look at Europe. Kids can drink there at such a young age, and they don’t really abuse it as much as we do. Its like the whole if you give the oportunity for an abortion, there won’t be as many girls trying to do it in their dangerous and backalley ways.</p>
<p>I think that the 21 drinking age could/should be lowered without many problems.</p>
<p>agreed, hands - in europe, drinking is acceptable, so the novelty of it fades.</p>
<p>and people have hypothesized that the reason there’s more drinking in the rural/suburban areas is because…there’s NOTHING ELSE TO DO.</p>
<p>i hope, i hope, i hope, i hope, i hope, i hope, i hope, i hope, i hope</p>
<p>i wish, i wish, i wish, i wish, i wish, i wish, i wish, i wish, i wish</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>Europe is sooo tight… best place ever… people are soo chill and you are right, the novelty fades b/c drinking is nothing! seriously, having a glass of wine with your dinner is soo nice (chardonnay w/ pad thai… hmmmmm…) yea good stuff… BUT, unfortunately, here in the YOUnited States, we always have to F things up and create giant amounts of legislations b/c people are stupid…</p>
<p>and…</p>
<p>i<3dartmouth</p>
<p>I <3 Ireland</p>
<p>All true,</p>
<p>but don’t forget, you guys were not raised Europeans…they don’t super-size their food either ;)</p>
<p>hahaha…we’re watching Super Size me in our governmnet class yesterday, and what do I do right after swim practice? go buy a double double from in-n-out (one of the top three things I’ll miss when i go to hanover). I eat sooo much fast food, and I’m still in shape. Its the not excersizing part that most have a problem with.</p>
<p>People drink in the rural areas and suburbs because we don’t have anything eles to do. Its either that, or starbucks, or coldstone, or drive up to modesto and do pretty much the same things there. We don’t have teen clubs. We don’t have malls that stay open past 9. We do have canal banks, orchards, garages, and houses when parents aren’t home.</p>
<p>handsonthedash…great movie! now imagine knocking all those in-and-out’s back with a keg hose. lol</p>
<p>"Bad idea. Horrible idea. I hate it. </p>
<p>Just because you can be drafted doesn’t mean the drinking age should be lowered. Maybe it means the “drafting age” should be higher. Plus we don’t draft anymore." </p>
<p>it’s nice to know what a bad idea this is, but this author misses the point altogether. The draft is not the operative thing here. At the age of 18, we are fully legal adults. We can vote, enlist in the army, marry, operate businesses, serve alcohol, sue, be sued, and are liable as an adult for every crime that we commit. so whether or not i may still be forced to fight does not deny the fact that as a 20 year old adult, i should be entitled to rights specifically delegated to other adults. Even though MADD may assert that i’m still in the infancy of my cognitive development and therefore should not be trusted to make decisions, I am an adult. the only two caveats to the age of majority are gambling in some states, and drinking in all of them. </p>
<p>moreover, this neo-prohibition simply does not prove effective. While rates of drunk driving have been been going down for years, this trend streches back to the late 1970s, over half a decade before many states got coerced into raising the drinking age. many attribute it to better education and stricter enforcement of drunk driving itself, rather than peddling the idea that drinking is an evil until 21. since the law, drunk driving has decreased in the under-21 age group while increasing in the 21-24 age group.</p>
<p>the worst effect of this law, coupled with the prohibitionist culture that we were all so lucky to inherit, is that people no longer learn how to responsibly drink from parents. instead of sipping a glass of wine with parents at the age of sixteen, a fully law-abiding citizen will have their first alcohol experience while clutching porcelain on their 21st birthday, typically three years after leaving home. most choose to drink earlier, however, explaining the prevalence of basement parties and binge drinking as the popular option to a crowd that has been told how irresponsible they are. “binge drinking” as it is defined has been on a steady upswing since 1984. this isn’t a reflection of our limited capacity in decision making, as MADD would suggest, but a mirror to how adults of all ages acted during the prohibition years.</p>
<p>tell us enough how unable we are to handle alcohol, and how undeveloped we are mentally, and we may start acting like it.</p>
<p>That’s right mnben, look how well people over 21 do on booze…hell, look at Homer Simpson-- holds down a job, raised three Ivy caliber kids and rarely ever commits a felony below the Mason Dixon. Sure he’s just a cartoon, but aren’t we all at heart. enough said!</p>