Legalize adulthood, for the second time

Patrick Walsh of Princeton
To the editor:
In response to Stephen Wallace’s Guest Opinion piece on the drinking age, (The Packet, Sept. 9), I offer an old but utterly compelling argument: if Americans at 18 years of age can marry, have children, vote for our nation’s leaders, and risk their lives fighting on behalf of our country overseas, they are more than entitled to a beer. This inconsistency, which America has tolerated for decades, is patently absurd. Almost as absurd as Prohibition.
   It’s edifying to see that the effort to bring the drinking age in line with all the other freedoms and responsibilities of adulthood is being led by the leaders of our nation’s universities. It’s about time. The 21-year-old drinking age is not only a civil rights violation, it doesn’t work. What is ubiquitous can not be taboo; trying to make it so is futile.
   When we start treating 18-year-olds as the adults that they are, they’ll start acting the part. Legalize Adulthood: make people responsible for their actions; stop infantilizing 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds.
   As of this writing, 4,155 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq; the idea that many of them weren’t old enough to legally buy a six-pack is disgraceful. I served four years as an infantry officer in the 25th Infantry Division during the first Gulf War. It was just as absurd to me then that many of the men in my platoon were deemed combat-ready by a government that denied them entry to a saloon.
   Mr. Wallace mentions “the deleterious effects of alcohol on rapidly maturing adolescents and young adult brains.” I wonder if he has ever seen the deleterious effects of shrapnel, explosive concussion, or a 7.62 mm rifle round on a young adult brain? So far, over 4,000 examples have been planted in the ground due to our folly in Iraq. See the inconsistency?
   But let’s table war. How about parenting? Isn’t it slightly absurd that a 19-year-old woman can have a baby, begin raising it — an awesome responsibility — and yet not be allowed by law to drink wine?
   America has a history of conflicted priorities over alcohol. The idiocy of Prohibition lasted 13 years. Saner minds eventually repealed the 18th Amendment, legalizing adulthood. It’s time to Legalize Adulthood, again.
Patrick Walsh
Stonebridge Lane
Princeton