21 or 18?

Gandhi one said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Many things on Earth are messed up. There are starving children, threatening the extinctions of polar bears, and Justin Bieber dating Selena Gomez, but people don’t see what is hidden. They don’t see what is in between the lines. For a while now, a world-wide debate on whether or not the drinking age should be lowered or not, has come to many peoples attention. Some believe that the drinking age of 21 isn’t working out because a lot of under-aged drinking is occurring, so the age to legally drink should be changed to 18. Some believe that the drinking age is fine at 21, and that you can’t fix something that isn’t broken. I believe that the drinking age of 21 is the right number to legally drink because you are more mature at 21, rather then 18, and it could prevent a lot of drunk driving accidents.

Many families all over the world get the news that a loved one was seriously injured or killed in a drunk driving accident. The pain for those families must be excruciating because imagine if a police officer came to your door and said excuse me, but so-and-so was killed in an accident to a drunk driver. And there is nothing you can do to fix it because that one person had too much to drink, and took someone’s life. And if you put the number to 18, then the level of maturity will be even less, and more can people can get hurt.

Aside from the dangers and pain of drinking when not ready, it also very un-safe to drink pre-maturely. When you begin drinking before you’re ready, it can lead to an addiction of alcohol, which will last a lifetime. When you aren’t ready to do something, you make stupid decisions that can lead to fatalities.

Even though I feel that the drinking age should stay at 21, I do see why the drinking age should be lowered to 18. It was a hard decision for me to make about what age would be better, and I obviously chose that it should stay at 21, but if people can go off and fight for our country at 18, then they can have a beer at 18. A lot of people don’t know that it is legal to drink at any age if you are in your house and are supervised by your guardian. I think that maybe the system would be better if the legal age to drink was 18, like when teenagers need to be educated about it, they wont have the same motivation about it if they can’t drink at that time.

I can easily see both sides of the argument. But I can see the roads being a little bit safer if the driving age remained at 21.

photo by: magnusfranklin