RUEBENSON: Legal at 21

Driving is a skill. Everybody does it poorly at first. You gain mastery of driving by practicing it over and over. There's very little to indicate that the learning curve for a 16 year old differs much from that for a 21 year old. However, I firmly believe that moving the age when one can start mastering the potentially lethal complexities of driving a car to the very same year that one can legally drink alcohol for the first time is a recipe for disaster.

As an 18 year old, a freshman in college, and most importantly, a responsible, and informed, student, i believe that the main issue is teaching your children how to drink responsibly. It should be placed upon the shoulders of the responsible parents in this country. I come from a family where alcohol is not taboo. My parents taught me the proper way to enjoy and appreciate alcohol in moderation. Ive been through about two occasions where i may have gotten more intoxicated than i would have preferred. Knowing that i would not be branded as a criminal in the minds of my parents was probably one of the main reasons why i called them on each of those two occasions. I was punished and scolded, but more importantly i learned that drinking that much is never fun. Had I not gone to my parents, god forbid something bad could have happened and I could have been injured or worse. With that in mind, a repeal to the highway incentive act would allow states to finally be able to choose drinking ages for themselves. Say they choose to lower it to 18, I could only imagine this would make alcohol a less taboo of a topic for parents. Some people it seems, have invested a blind trust in our government to tell us what is always right. In so doing they let themselves believe that just because the government said, we adults, 18-20 aren't responsible enough to drink, it must be right! Sorry guys but you need re-live college, and maybe brush up on some history in the meantime, maybe find out what it is to be a true American and be skeptical of government policies. Theres is much more i would like to say, but ill leave it at this, hopefully someone else my age will come and write a follow up. We need more young adults to participate in this debate, IT AFFECTS US!