Hello. My name is Zack. and I've been sober for 18 years. yes you guessed it. im blogging on the age old topic of underaged drinking. but "underaged drinking" is a bit to negative for this blog, so lets refer to it as "drinking under the age of influence." a little longer of a term but what i mean by that is those directly affected by the drinking age in such a way that they are not allowed to do so are being told and forced not to do so by those that are allowed. hopefully you can follow me with that one at least like 50% or so. if not, the following will try to make it more clear. Also, just as a disclaimer, i have no idea if either side of this debate will be swayed at all to think just a little differently, nor do i really care, because my parents have pretty much made up their mind already. i am simply putting my side of the debate on paper.... err blog. so to start it off, what are the conditions i would be pressing for if such a change were to occur? well its quite simple. i believe that given the right conditions, an older aged teenager should be allowed to drink at their parents disgression and ONLY under their supervision if both the parents and teenager are capable of handling the situation responsibly. and i have come to that thesis through the careful consideration of both sides of the story. so what are both sides of the story, what are their strong points, and what are their weak points?
we begin with the most recent traditional viewpoint: the drinking age is and should be 21. and believe me, if you're going to comment anything the slightest bit antagonistic to this viewpoint to someone about 30 or older, you had better have some evidence. and heres why. statistics that have been collected over the past few decades point to one conclusion. drinking before the age of 21 results in disaster. however, statistics do not leave very much room for hypothetical situations. because hypothetically speaking, many and arguably ALL of the "disasters" were caused by those not responsible enough to handle their safe drinking responsibility. those that ARE responsible enough but underage now find themself between a rock and a hard place. on the one hand the law still remains, and as far as trying to prove the law otherwise-the law was primarily based on statistics.
so who do i know that would fit the hypothetical situation..... o yea! its me! just to give you a picture of why this is true, consider the following. the government trusts your local high school dropout who now works at the 7/11, has already been divorced, and is thousands of dollars in debt to have a beer because his 21st birthday was today. the government does not however trust 18 year old Zack Helton to have a beverage with a little more class (lets say a glass of wine) even though his total GPA is 4.23, he is broadcasted to graduate within the top 3% of his class of 354, was accepted as the sole delegate to Golden Boys State California, represented the top 1% of somewhere in the ballpark of ninety thousand AFJROTC Cadets in the nation at Aerospace & Technology Honors Camp in New Mexico (which might i add cadets who attended this camp showed so much potential that the government decided to cover ALL expenses for this trip, including airfare, food, room and board for the week. you do the math.), is second in command to an AFJROTC Unit of around 140 cadets, holds the Head Instructor position for the Golden West Mustang Marching Band of around 60 students, and has recently taken it upon himself to push for the Team Captain spot of his Vanden Varsity Soccer Team. through his busy schedule, he also finds time to do another thing the government combined with the FAA trusts him to do- Fly a freakin airplane without the assistance of anyone else in the cockpit or aircraft. so yea. the government makes sense when it says i cant have a glass of wine. but i cant really make that statement without opposition because the government cant go and take a look at every person's resume under the age of 21 in America. but that person's parents sure can. which brings me back to my thesis. if the teenager and parents of the teenager are responsible enough, he/she should be allowed, under the parents supervision, to have. a glass. of wine.
we begin with the most recent traditional viewpoint: the drinking age is and should be 21. and believe me, if you're going to comment anything the slightest bit antagonistic to this viewpoint to someone about 30 or older, you had better have some evidence. and heres why. statistics that have been collected over the past few decades point to one conclusion. drinking before the age of 21 results in disaster. however, statistics do not leave very much room for hypothetical situations. because hypothetically speaking, many and arguably ALL of the "disasters" were caused by those not responsible enough to handle their safe drinking responsibility. those that ARE responsible enough but underage now find themself between a rock and a hard place. on the one hand the law still remains, and as far as trying to prove the law otherwise-the law was primarily based on statistics.
so who do i know that would fit the hypothetical situation..... o yea! its me! just to give you a picture of why this is true, consider the following. the government trusts your local high school dropout who now works at the 7/11, has already been divorced, and is thousands of dollars in debt to have a beer because his 21st birthday was today. the government does not however trust 18 year old Zack Helton to have a beverage with a little more class (lets say a glass of wine) even though his total GPA is 4.23, he is broadcasted to graduate within the top 3% of his class of 354, was accepted as the sole delegate to Golden Boys State California, represented the top 1% of somewhere in the ballpark of ninety thousand AFJROTC Cadets in the nation at Aerospace & Technology Honors Camp in New Mexico (which might i add cadets who attended this camp showed so much potential that the government decided to cover ALL expenses for this trip, including airfare, food, room and board for the week. you do the math.), is second in command to an AFJROTC Unit of around 140 cadets, holds the Head Instructor position for the Golden West Mustang Marching Band of around 60 students, and has recently taken it upon himself to push for the Team Captain spot of his Vanden Varsity Soccer Team. through his busy schedule, he also finds time to do another thing the government combined with the FAA trusts him to do- Fly a freakin airplane without the assistance of anyone else in the cockpit or aircraft. so yea. the government makes sense when it says i cant have a glass of wine. but i cant really make that statement without opposition because the government cant go and take a look at every person's resume under the age of 21 in America. but that person's parents sure can. which brings me back to my thesis. if the teenager and parents of the teenager are responsible enough, he/she should be allowed, under the parents supervision, to have. a glass. of wine.
