Throughout the 20th century alcohol has been a debate. From 1920 to 1933, alcohol was completely prohibited, thus it was called the period of ‘Prohibition.’ After the prohibition became so unpopular, a legal drinking age of 18 was instilled. Then in 1984, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act made the legal drinking age 21.
So from this little bit of history, this has been a debate over many period of the US history. We may forget about it now, and it made seem like a trivial issue compared to the other events of the times, but the legal drinking age has been a heavily debated issue of our past.
I’m going to specifically target the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. At this time the debate was extremely heated and was very strong on both sides of the argument.
Those in favor for the drinking age to be raised believed that people over the age of 21 were more mature to handle the effects of alcohol. Which was very true. At the time the statistics regarding drinking and driving were very high; 60% of fatally injured teenagers had alcohol in their blood, and teenagers were involved with fifth of the auto accidents. These statistics mostly came in the argument from MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) who were the forerunners for the drinking age to be raised.
But, an argument that was debated then, and is still argued now for lowering the drinking age involves our soldiers. The argument circled around the fact that men at the age of 18 were allowed to serve in the armed forces, vote, get married, and smoke, then why couldn’t they have a drink. Another point made was that, if these 18 year-olds are mature enough to enlist and be a part of a military team, and go to war, then what constitutes his immaturity to drink.
Anyways… the point of highlighting these arguments was to show that at the time there was confusion and passionate feelings about things as simple as the legal drinking age. Debating issues such as these, so heavily can/will promote the loss of support, whether it’s for the government or for people in general. This may be the case, currently. With the media highlighting Britney Spears' latest escapade with her children and her divorce, and Obama bowling in Pennsylvania, the public may lose sight of what’s important, and begin not to care.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/05/marine_alcohol_070511/
http://www.youthrights.org/legana.php
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