THREE YEARS OF CONSEQUENCE
During the years, eighteen to twenty, nearly all young men and women crave peer approval, adult independence and youthful freedom. Mix them with a lethal sense of total invincibility and you have a deadly combination. Sadly for some, these three desires and the belief of being invincible, all too frequently come smashing together in a confluence of disaster.
It's a difficult situation because it can be argued that the inappropriate actions of some should not dictate perceived penalties on others. Certainly, not all those in these critical years act irresponsibly. The vast majority of young people are dedicated students and show responsible care in making their decisions. The question is: Where do we draw the line, for it must be drawn somewhere?
Statistics show that alcohol-related teen-aged deaths have gone up when the age was reduced to eighteen and down when the age was returned to the age of twenty-one. This is not an insignificant fact.
She was fifteen years of age and a sophomore in high school. Upon her death, her parents created a perpetual college scholarship fund in her honor. The scholarship specified that a group of students would be selected. One out of that group, chosen by a vote of that year's school seniors as being the most kind and helpful to other students, would be named the scholarship honoree. The only reason I know about the scholarship was that my daughter was the first recipient the honor.
The promising and talented fifteen-year-old, after whom the scholarship was named, was killed by a drunk driver who was 18-years-of-age. It was a tragedy on so many levels, it's hard to comprehend. But the saddest of all, is the fact that drunken teenagers, killing other teenagers, who are not drunk, is so common, that this tragic event hardly rates a mention in our world today. Another sad fact is it doesn't have to be a two-car accident. Single car roll-overs where the teen-aged driver has been drinking, has also taken many lives. It has become so serious, that some states now have laws restricting drivers from ages sixteen to eighteen, must have an adult in the vehicle if a third person is present.
He was eighteen years of age and a freshman at University. He pledged a fraternity. As part of the hazing ritual he was forced to swallow huge quantities of alcoholic drinks. He was later found passed out in the frat house storage closet. He didn't make it to the hospital.
He was a scholarship winning student with academic skills that would make any parent proud and which any university would seek. Sadly, this story too, is all too common. Yet, it does not rise to the level of sufficient concern that stops fraternities and ever sororities, from participating binge drinking or alcoholic hazing.
Peer pressure during these critical years from eighteen to twenty-one is massive. The older fraternity brothers, who themselves were twenty and twenty-one years of age, were not responsible enough to consider the potential consequences of their pressure on their pledges. This is only one of many hazing incidents at fraternities where freshmen have died of alcohol poisoning. The young men involved will spend their college years in jail.
This young man died in his own vomit, with an alcohol level that was toxic. It is so tragically ironic that these young people who are just starting their lives, are so passionate about the environment, but never consider the environment of their own bodies and the consequences of what abusing that inner environment can do.
A drinking standard is required both for society's sake and safety, and to protect against the irresponsibility of some who cannot distinguish between a life threat and what some call frat pranks.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving was formed and operates to combat just this type of problem. All good parents make judgments that dictate safety parameters they feel are necessary and against which children chafe. But, the eighteen, nineteen and twenty-year-olds are not just killing themselves with their choices. If the statistics are accurate, thousands more lives will be saved by keeping the drinking age at twenty-one. It is appropriate and necessary.