Drink Up

From the AJC:

READERS WRITE:

Age law doesn’t prevent drinking, just increases risks

Anyone between the ages of 18 and 21 who wants to drink does. The question before legislators is whether to allow 18- to 20-year-olds to drink legally in restaurants and clubs. When I turned 18 the thought was if you are old enough to die for your country, you are old enough to drink. That idea seems as true now in the days of Iraq as it was in the ’70s.

At 18, I was able to learn to drink responsibly, not because of low self-esteem, as one reader suggested, but because it was an enjoyable way to spend an evening dining out and being with friends (” Booze salves low self-esteem, Letters, Aug. 27).

Today’s college crowd has to sneak around, learn how to break the law and often ends up driving drunk and doing far more harm than my generation did. In Europe, beer is available in vending machines, with the result that there is less drunkenness and drunk driving. It is unreasonable repression that breeds low self-esteem and dangerous excess.

JACK MILLER

Atlanta

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/printedition/2008/09/05/lettsed.html



Cheers.