(no subject)
The Fray concert was amazing! but i was WAY more impressed by the opening band The Feeling. i only have the EP, and i'm debating buying the album on Amazon since it's not available in the states till March, i believe. i love finding out about more bands to listen to.
so i'm doing research for an essay about lowering the drinking age, and i decided to look up an analysis of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, and i found these few paragraphs particularly intriguing...
"From the end of Prohibition until 1984 drinking ages were determined by the states, many of them had the age at 21 while several lowered the age to 18 for the purchase of beer. This was changed due to the baby boom generation and the Vietnam War. "From 1970 through 1975 nearly all states lowered their legal ages of adulthood, thirty including their legal drinking ages, usually from 21 to 18." (Males 194) It was argued that if people were required to fight and die in a foreign war then they should be allowed the privileged of drinking alcohol. This generation exercised previously unheard of clout and political muscle, and through years of protest and many valid arguments this generation of youth gained back some lost liberty. After this period, however, public sentiment changed. The baby boomers were aging and the freedoms they for which they fought for themselves no longer seemed important when they involved someone else.
This loss of a powerful ally allowed the modern prohibitionist movement led by Candy Lightner, the president and founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), to gain strength in this country again. The late seventies and late eighties were marked with an excess of highly publicized studies that claimed teenage alcohol was out of control and was turning into a devastating problem of epidemic proportion. This and the national mood produced an environment primed for the anti-youth, anti-alcohol legislation that became the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984.
The actual bill required "all States to raise their minimum drinking age to 21 within 2 years or lose a portion of their Federal-aid highway funds; and encourage States, through incentive grants programs, to pass mandatory sentencing laws to combat drunk driving." (Thomas Senate Record Vote Analysis) The portion of the Federal-aid highway funds that would be lost if the state didn't comply amounted to 5 percent in the third year and 10 percent in the fourth year.
The minimum drinking age is discriminatory based on age, and it goes against the constitution by forcing the states to comply with the federal government. This legislation was disastrous for the concept of federalism, because it was one of the first steps that allowed the federal government to "blackmail" the states in this way. From this time deals like this that coerce states became common legislation on the hill."
i was not aware that the government was "blackmailing" the states. so technically if the states decide to pay these Federal-aid highway funds, they could determine our drinking age. this makes me wonder, if the drinking age was lowered or even dropped in virginia, would it be enough to profit off people under the age of 21 to pay those funds?
so i'm doing research for an essay about lowering the drinking age, and i decided to look up an analysis of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, and i found these few paragraphs particularly intriguing...
"From the end of Prohibition until 1984 drinking ages were determined by the states, many of them had the age at 21 while several lowered the age to 18 for the purchase of beer. This was changed due to the baby boom generation and the Vietnam War. "From 1970 through 1975 nearly all states lowered their legal ages of adulthood, thirty including their legal drinking ages, usually from 21 to 18." (Males 194) It was argued that if people were required to fight and die in a foreign war then they should be allowed the privileged of drinking alcohol. This generation exercised previously unheard of clout and political muscle, and through years of protest and many valid arguments this generation of youth gained back some lost liberty. After this period, however, public sentiment changed. The baby boomers were aging and the freedoms they for which they fought for themselves no longer seemed important when they involved someone else.
This loss of a powerful ally allowed the modern prohibitionist movement led by Candy Lightner, the president and founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), to gain strength in this country again. The late seventies and late eighties were marked with an excess of highly publicized studies that claimed teenage alcohol was out of control and was turning into a devastating problem of epidemic proportion. This and the national mood produced an environment primed for the anti-youth, anti-alcohol legislation that became the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984.
The actual bill required "all States to raise their minimum drinking age to 21 within 2 years or lose a portion of their Federal-aid highway funds; and encourage States, through incentive grants programs, to pass mandatory sentencing laws to combat drunk driving." (Thomas Senate Record Vote Analysis) The portion of the Federal-aid highway funds that would be lost if the state didn't comply amounted to 5 percent in the third year and 10 percent in the fourth year.
The minimum drinking age is discriminatory based on age, and it goes against the constitution by forcing the states to comply with the federal government. This legislation was disastrous for the concept of federalism, because it was one of the first steps that allowed the federal government to "blackmail" the states in this way. From this time deals like this that coerce states became common legislation on the hill."
i was not aware that the government was "blackmailing" the states. so technically if the states decide to pay these Federal-aid highway funds, they could determine our drinking age. this makes me wonder, if the drinking age was lowered or even dropped in virginia, would it be enough to profit off people under the age of 21 to pay those funds?