Doing doughnuts in a golf cart, dancing half-naked on top of a keg, making out with someone whose name you don’t remember the next morning.
At one time or another, an O’Collegian Editorial Board member has gotten drunk and done one or more of those activities.
And we’re all 21 and older.
Earlier this week, more than 100 university and college presidents signed their names to an initiative launched in July to encourage lowering the drinking age to 18.
Leaders expressing support for the initiative include presidents of Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State University, while OSU president Burns Hargis and OU president David Boren have expressed disagreement.
The movement has been met with widespread dissension and debate from many groups, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Also, a state not enforcing the 21 and older drinking age faces a penalty of 10 percent of its federal highway appropriation thanks to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act that Congress passed in 1984.
Oftentimes, when people discuss whether 18 year olds should be allowed to drink, some will argue that young adults aren’t mature enough to partake in such activities.
Personally, we’re of the opinion that many students start drinking in high school, and all of us either experimented with alcohol ourselves or had friends who drank.
We are all in agreement that if, at 18, a person is considered old enough to vote, pay taxes and serve in the military and possibly die for his or her country, that person should be allowed to drink.
Naturally, we would advocate educational programs in high school about drinking, as well as education at home by parents. If people can learn at an earlier age the difference between binge drinking and social drinking, the less likely they would probably be to do it later on.
If people want to drink, they’re going to find a way, regardless of the legal age.
Just because a person is 21, he or she isn’t instantly able to drink with an air of maturity. From our experience, it’s quite the opposite; people sometimes go a little crazy with the bottle once they turn legal.
For instance, when one of us celebrated turning 21, it involved losing the ability to walk and being carried out of one of the bars on The Strip.
Another board member remembered this summer doing doughnuts in a go-cart at a Tulsa public park and trying to crash through a locked baseball field gate.
This immature behavior is not limited to twentysomethings. Basically, there’s no age limit on stupidity.
It’s time we let the 18 year olds come socialize at the bar so they’ll have something to do in Stillwater.
-The O’Collegian Editorial Board
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