FURTHER COMMENTARY ON THE VOTING AND DRINKIING AGE

I edited the last post for clarity and to correct a couple of typos. I also got an earful last night from a MADD advocate I had as a passenger. She berated me about "all the carnage" MADD's efforts had prevented (I responded by telling her that most of that prevention was due to stepped-up sobriety checks and stricter enforcement and tougher penalties for DWI, not because some 19 year old had to stay stuck in kidland even though he was an adult).

 

What's more, I have noticed ever since the nationwide 21 year old minimum age has been in effect, "drinking holidays" have become ever more tiresome to drive a taxicab during. This is due to younger drinkers, not having been adequately socialized, not knowing how to drink and behave. They do things like stagger up and try to open the doors of a fully loaded taxi, demanding a ride; or standing in the middle of the street waving their arms over their heads; or even jumping right out into the path of a moving taxi to try and force the driver to stop.  Almost without exception these are people in their early 20s. Had they been allowed to drink at an age when they were still in some respects still in awe of older adults, they would have developed the drinking customs of responsible adults and not carried behavior usually seen at an underage keg party into the streets.

 

Moreover, 18-to-20 year olds may still live with their parents and teenage and 'tweener siblings. These "underage adults" associate with classmates and co-workers who are over 21 and can and do buy booze for them. Lots of that booze winds up fuelling teenage parties. The younger siblings then develop the irresponsible drinking behaviors that they, in turn display once they are old enough to legally consume alcohol in public places such as pubs.

 

Not only this, but instead of riding the alcoholic beverage bike with beer training wheels for three years, suddenly at age 21 they are able to purchase and consume pure grain alcohol if they like. The result of that is the behavior you can witness on any weekend night in Old Town Alexandria, Clarendon, Adams-Morgan and other DC area nightlife zones. Imagine driving a cab and seeing some 22 year old kid puking while he has his hand held out trying to flag a cab.

 

And all the while the best of our 18-20s are having political discussions - if they have them at all - with younger kids than themselves and getting their "news" from some comedian on TV. \

 

(By the way, as usual the MADD activists inflate statistics by classifying for instance any crash where a passenger in the back seat had been drinking as "alcohol related" even if the drivers of boh vehicles were as sober as funeral directors. This is why Mark Twain said there were lies, damn lies, and statistics.)

 

This is why the 26th Amendment must be repealed for 24 years. It will take at least that long to re-establish a population of under-21 adults who are integrated into adult society sufficiently to trust them with the vote.

And that will happen only if these younger adults are allowed to socialize with fellow adults instead of the kids' world they have - supposedly - left. Things have come to such a pass because 18 to 20 year old adults have been forced to stay on - rather than leave - Sugar Mountain; and expect the government to pay for the barkers and colored balloons.  It's time to bring  that to a screeching halt.