Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jun 2001
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.sjmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Kathleen Parker

IF 18 IS ADULT, LET JENNA HAVE A BREW

It can't be easy -- or much fun -- being the daughter of the president of 
the United States, especially if you're a college gal who enjoys a beer now 
and then. Most do.

But, like it or not, Jenna Bush is the president's daughter, and what she 
does matters more than what other people's children do. Her two recent 
brushes with the law over drinking -- once in April and again last week -- 
have thrust her under the media microscope and renewed debates about 
underage alcohol use.

On one side of the discussion are former college students who remember 
acting like college students. So the kid had a beer. Bomb Baghdad. On the 
other side are people like Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation, who 
see Jenna's "problem" as suggestive of the Bush administration's lax 
attitude toward drug and alcohol issues in the United States.

Gee. George W. Bush has been in office a little more than 100 days and he's 
supposed to have solved the drug- and alcohol-abuse problem in the Free 
World. But then of course he can't, can he, because Georgie Boy had a 
little drinking problem in his college days and thereafter. "I did not run 
that red light with that woman, what was her name?"

I don't know whether Jenna Bush has "a drinking problem," though arguably 
getting in trouble for underage drinking is a problem. The Problem, 
however, isn't so much the fact of her drinking; it's the ludicrous law 
that makes her a lawbreaker for making an adult choice when she is, in 
fact, an adult.

Last time I checked, a 19-year-old girl -- er, woman -- could vote, get 
killed in war, be prosecuted in adult court, but she can't tap a brewskie? 
What do we mean by "age of consent" if not consent?

That said, I'm hardly leading the crusade to bring 18-year-olds to the 
grown-up table. I've been an 18-year-old, and I've helped rear two humans 
who passed through that arbitrary adult portal. Maturity isn't the first 
word that comes to mind.

Indeed, under my dictatorship, no one would vote until they're paying the 
bills. If you're 18 and helping me float the federal government, by all 
means grab a ballot. Otherwise, do your homework and, as my Uncle Archie 
would say, "Stifle yourself."

As for wars, I've always been an advocate of all-male armies, minimum age 
40. We'd be in and out of those foxholes faster than you can say Kawasaki. 
Why not women? Because, silly, women don't start wars (please spare me the 
Cleopatra bio), nor do they demand a sword the instant Mom climbs off the 
delivery table. If gender stereotypes offend you, you haven't had children.

All of which is to say, we could raise the age of adulthood to 35 and I'd 
be perfectly happy. As a bonus, I'd be a young adult once again. But that's 
not likely, nor is it likely that 19-year-olds are going to stop drinking 
beer. What's more likely is that we're going to waste time and money 
pursuing young adults and creating havoc in their lives for doing what was 
legal when most of us were young.

Changing the national drinking age from 18 to 21 in 1984 -- following a 
breathtakingly successful campaign by Candy Lightner, founder of Mothers 
Against Drunk Driving -- was a colossal mistake. Understandable, given 
Lightner's personal tragedy -- her daughter was killed by a drunken driver 
- -- but a mistake nonetheless.

If an 18-year-old is an adult, treat her as an adult. Consequences and all.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth