The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Viewpoints

Recently a state representative from Greenville proposed lowering the drinking age. State representative Fletcher Smith does not want to lower the drinking age to 18 for every South Carolinian - he wants to lower it for every South Carolinian in the military.

Military service does force people to grow up but so does life outside of the military.

Maturity is a very subjective argument for lowering the drinking age. There is no way to measure how mature an individual is for the simple reason that maturity means different things to different people.

Some people would even argue that going to college makes someone more mature. Thinking about it - we all have that friend who really should have put college off for a few years and used that time to grow up. Yet we also have friends who are so mature they should be working full time and preparing to collect social security.

Just because someone can hold a gun and fight in a war does not mean that they are mature enough to drink at Dr. Rocco's in Five Points. On the same note, just because someone chose to go to college or work after high school doesn't mean they are not mature enough to go to Good Times and have a few beers.

Every year people argue that if you are old enough to fight in a war, then you are old enough to drink. Representative Smith has misinterpreted this to mean that if someone is 18 years old and in the military, they are old enough to drink.

With every privilege comes responsibility. With the privilege to drive comes the responsibility of keeping yourself and others safe on the road. However, enlisting in the military is not a privilege someone earns - it is a career choice that someone makes.

No one's career entitles them to special treatment from the government.

Should we pass a bill that allows police officers to speed because they are police officers? Maybe we should pass a bill that allows judges to commit murder because, after all they're judges, they should know what they are doing. This bill signals that they are also entitled to special treatment.

Passing this bill creates a slippery slope that the state must be careful with. If we start treating one group of people differently, based on a career choice, what is to stop us from treating other groups differently?

Rep. Smith is on the right track in his thinking that 18-year-olds are old enough to drink. However, he should try and extend the right to all 18-year-olds and not just those that are in the military.

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