Tuesday, October 9, 2007
I Wonder If MADD and the Military Could Agree on This One?
Raise the service-eligible age and lower the drinking age - both to nineteen. That's not the proposal in the article - it deals only with a group looking to lower the drinking age to 18, but they use the military service argument. How can one not be persuaded that if old enough to die for your country that you cannot drink there legally? But the practical effects would be ugly (recruiting becomes much harder and alcohol-related accidents go up) and that is why we have such dissonance between policy and philosophies/ideologies. What about keeping it at 21 but making active duty military exempt? There would be howls of "unfairness" at that proposal, but I'd be more than willing to support it. Guard/Reserve folks would be exempt when called up to active duty. Just pondering..
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