Kid to Drink and Man to Kill
Imagine two friends talking to each other. “Hey, have you tasted this new American beer? They told me is great!” “No, I’m only eighteen, I can’t drink; but what is great is that yesterday my commander in the ARMY taught me how to shoot a CQD Weapon Catch Mark II!” Very nice for a teenager not to drink, but do you think is also nice to teach them how to kill at this age?
The federal laws state that the minimum legal age to drink is tweenty one, a contrast to the age when a person is considered old enough to smoke, enroll in the armed forces, drive, have sex, use pornographic material, vote, and be considered as an adult by the criminal law, which is just eighteen. I remember a couple of times I tried to enter a bar, the doormen told me “you are not old enough to get in.” I also remember receiving calls at my house from recruiting officers from the Army, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force and many other military institutions telling me “come and register with us, we are ready to have you in.” Apparently, the United States thinks that an eighteen year old teen is too young to have a bad day after a night of drinks, but is old enough to have a life full of memories of men getting shot, bombarded, and tortured at war. A night of too many beers can be easily forgotten, but how does a person forget a night full of bullets on the air, and mines on the ground? As soon as you get to be eighteen, you receive a letter in the mail that tells you that is time to register for the armed forces.
As Jim Anderton said in June 2004 “Is time to revisit the minimum legal drinking age.” Why should we separate alcohol consumption from the other rights and privileges that we gain when we become adults? When we turn eighteen, we are officially held accountable for our actions under the law so why would we not be just as decisive with our choices concerning inebriation? The limitation on alcohol does not deter teenagers from drinking; instead it acts as the forbidden fruit that many are trying to get at any cost. As a way or amending the law, I think it could allow eighteen year olds to drink under the supervision of their parents or an adult. This way they won’t be out of control. The number of cases of teenage drunk driving would decrease because a conscious adult would be there to take the car keys away. MADD says that since the time the government raised the drinking age "the alcohol-related traffic fatality rate has been cut in half." What they don't mention is the fact that underage drinking is on the rise. Most of these teenagers do it as a way of having fun, because other “experienced” teens have told them it is cool. How are teenagers supposed to learn to drink responsibly when they cannot even drink legally with their parents at a restaurant? Having a drink with your parents at a restaurant is a much more adult experience than drinking with them at home. Almost all under-age drinking is done outside the home, in social circles, so a way of preventing irresponsible drinking by teens should be allowing them to drink with adult supervision, even in public places. The prohibition of a substance makes it more interesting to experience it. If the laws make the alcohol a taboo, then curiosity will attack more kids making it a desirable thing to use.
Not having a Mandatory Military Service is a relief to the minimum age to enroll in the armed forces. But what happens in times of war? What if some day the President, as the Commander in Chief of the armed forces decides to call for a draft? Then hundreds of teenagers would be taken along to a war that maybe many won’t even understand the reasons that caused it. Just one year ago I was considered as a teenager, and I knew how fragile the mind of a young adult is. There are many things at that age that you are not prepared to face, and being in the Army is one of them. Maybe some people are ready and feel capable of taking the responsibility of defend this country, but many are not, that is why registering to the Military Service should be optional. A person should enter the Army or any other military institution only if his or her vocation is to be a soldier. There are thousands of soldiers that should be studying in universities instead of been fighting in the Middle East. There are thousands of soldiers that are not planning to make a living on the Army, there are probably accountants, doctors, lawyers, etc. that have lost many semesters of studies because they were forced to go to fight. By raising the minimum age to be a military, thousands of students will have time to finish their studies; because once our studies get interrupted is hard to go back.
There are some American believes that don’t make sense to me. With eighteen you are a kid to have a drink in a bar, but you are ready to kill for this country. America tries to lower the alcohol consumption, then why do they allow the alcohol commercials on television all day every five minutes? They say that if you wear jeans below the line of the waist, you will have to pay fifty dollars. They just don’t make sense.
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