Is an 18 or 21 Year Old an Adult?
In the United States of America, the legal age to vote and join the military is 18 years old, yet the age to purchase alcohol is 21.
This implies that an 18 year old person is a legal adult. Furthermore, this implies that an 18 year old adult is mature enough to vote on the future of the nation and possibly go to war to kill and be killed for their country. However, this also implies that an 18 year old adult is not mature enough to responsibly consume alcohol.
How can a country believe that a young adult is old enough to be drafted into the military, yet still consider the same adult not old enough to drink alcohol? In my opinion, you are either old enough for both or not old enough for both.
I believe that an adult is a person who is old enough to take full responsibility for all of their actions, including voting, joining the military, drinking alcohol, serving jury duty, choosing education, etc. Therefore, I believe there should only be a single age when a person is legally considered a complete adult. Whether it is 18 or 21 years old is up to debate that I’ll leave for you to decide.
However, I think the separation of two ages for defining an adult is a shameful double standard that is extremely hypocritical, especially in a free country such as the United States.
Therefore, this begs several questions.
First, in your opinion, at what age is a person a full adult that is completely responsible for all of their actions?
Second, can a person be a partial adult?
Third, should a person be old enough to vote and serve in the military yet not be old enough to buy a beer?
You decide, but please contact your representatives and demand change.
by Phil for Humanity
on 10/11/2007