Upon reading Sandy Caul’s article about keg legislation (“Keg legislation will save lives,” SN 2/8), I must agree the bill in question would restrict the availability of alcohol to minors. However, I fail to see the necessity of the measure.
While fewer kegs may be purchased, those that are will still be binged upon, and, let’s face it, minors are going to drink. Aside from the law enforcement officials, do the rest - and majority of us - really want or need yet another instance of the government interfering in our personal lives?
I do not believe the government had our best interests at heart when they decided “minors” are under 21 because these individuals are not capable of determining how much alcohol will harm them and the others they kill while driving drunk.
Federal allocation of state highway funds, yes; our interests, no. True, when 18 was the legal drinking age for a short period in the 1970s, drunken driving fatalities went up. But 21-year-olds get in a lot of drunken driving accidents, too.
Twenty-one is too arbitrary a limit considering all the other privileges and punishments we acquire at 18, or even earlier, such as the right to purchase cigarettes, proven carcinogens; the potential for procreation and responsibility for the welfare of another human being; the right to abort the life of a human being; the right to elect officials to lead the most powerful nation in the world; the right to bear arms; the right to be held accountable, as an adult, for murder, rape and other violent crimes that can result in life in prison; and the right to give one’s life to this country when one is drafted against one’s will.
How can 18-year-olds be responsible enough to raise their children and not be considered capable of safely enjoying an alcoholic drink?
The contradictions surrounding the issue of drinking and “minors” are already so great that perhaps we should work to eliminate them instead of add another.
Granted, the keg bill would serve to enforce a law already in existence, but one that has no business being there in the first place.
Lauren Brace
human biology freshman
