I first heard of the Amethyst Initiative on the way to work this morning, and later found it on Yahoo! via Reditt.
If you haven't heard of it, essentially the initiative addresses the notion that the policy of allowing people to drink ( legally ) once they are 21 years old does not reflect the reality of today's society. The initiative has quite a few signatures. The signatures are representative of a lot of well-known colleges and universities across the US.
However, groups such as M.A.D.D. are openly against the initiative primarily because they believe reducing the age will lead in more teen deaths.
Quite honestly, I can say that I cannot understand why kids as young as 18 can be shipped off to Iraq, have a rifle thrown into their hands and expected to take lives, but yet, cannot sit down in a bar and have a beer.
On the other hand, having gone to college and experienced the social expectation that is prevalent on many campuses - that if you should attend a party you are expected to consume vast quantities of alcohol; that sporting a hangover at your 8 AM class is akin to a badge of honor; that it is cool to be majorly fucked up beyond all recognition; that it is a rite of passage one must accomplish and then decide that it's really quite stupid before they hit bottom or become lifetime alcoholics.
Perhaps it wouldn't be so cool to be fucked up it it wasn't portrayed as cool in movies about college life. It is as obligatory a scene in most college-themed movies to have a scene with underage kids drinking at the most awesome party of the year as it is to have hot coeds romping topless in any other scene.
In other words - it's our culture stupid.
If you haven't heard of it, essentially the initiative addresses the notion that the policy of allowing people to drink ( legally ) once they are 21 years old does not reflect the reality of today's society. The initiative has quite a few signatures. The signatures are representative of a lot of well-known colleges and universities across the US.
However, groups such as M.A.D.D. are openly against the initiative primarily because they believe reducing the age will lead in more teen deaths.
Quite honestly, I can say that I cannot understand why kids as young as 18 can be shipped off to Iraq, have a rifle thrown into their hands and expected to take lives, but yet, cannot sit down in a bar and have a beer.
On the other hand, having gone to college and experienced the social expectation that is prevalent on many campuses - that if you should attend a party you are expected to consume vast quantities of alcohol; that sporting a hangover at your 8 AM class is akin to a badge of honor; that it is cool to be majorly fucked up beyond all recognition; that it is a rite of passage one must accomplish and then decide that it's really quite stupid before they hit bottom or become lifetime alcoholics.
Perhaps it wouldn't be so cool to be fucked up it it wasn't portrayed as cool in movies about college life. It is as obligatory a scene in most college-themed movies to have a scene with underage kids drinking at the most awesome party of the year as it is to have hot coeds romping topless in any other scene.
In other words - it's our culture stupid.