Drinking any amount proves irresponsible

I hope that most people realize that the letter printed in the Oct. 19 Exponent by Mr. Joseph Bante was based on multiple wrong assumptions and contained no facts beyond statements of his personal feelings. This response also contains no substantiated data, just some observations and logical reasoning. First of all, when people talk about the legal drinking age, they are not in any way referencing responsible behavior. It is pretty much a given that drinking any amount of alcohol at any time is, to some degree, irresponsible. Yes, in come cases it is negligibly irresponsible, but the fact is that when you drink alcohol you are knowingly reducing your inhibitions and your ability to act properly in any situation, emergency or otherwise. What people are talking about, however, is the ability of people who have been drinking to respond to their condition in a responsible way. Usually this involves the decision to drive.

I have to agree with the comment that the right question to ask is "What should the legal drinking age be?" The direction suggested by Mr. Bante, however, is incorrect. The problem is that students on this campus do things that I stopped doing in the sixth grade because I did not want to be thought of as acting like a little kid. I would guess that Mr. Bante is probably correct again in asserting that there is an overwhelming opinion against the legal drinking age being 21. Since the majority of our population is over 21, I would guess that most folks would want to increase the drinking age, and since it appears that 18-year-olds of today act like the 12-year-olds of 20 years ago, the legal drinking age should be 27.

Richard Hayward

Graduate Student

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