Maybe some colleges need new leaders
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
Mothers Against Drunk Driving and virtually anybody else who knows anything at all about the perils of underage drinking have jumped with all feet (in heavy shoes) on an idea called the Amethyst Initiative, in which some 100 present and former college professors call for dropping the drinking-age limit to 18.
Well, now, let’s see. These people are college presidents, and supposedly have the best interests of their students in mind. So, why do they propose making it easier for the students to kill themselves, and also for other young people throughout the country to kill themselves, too? Apparently, they just want fewer young people to have to deal with.
The college presidents want you to believe hurting kids isn’t their goal. They say they believe that making the drinking age younger will alcohol abuse less of a problem when the kids get to college.
I think what they really mean is that if the drinking age is 18, about the age when most students begin their college careers, they, the presidents, won’t have to deal with it. That will be just one more thing they won’t have to put up with. One of the great benefits of a liberal education.
But think about this. They would merely be passing the problem back to others.
More teens would wind up hooked on alcohol before they ever got to college. There would be more kids driving to college and then driving drunk. There would be more kids getting loaded instead of getting an education.
What the college presidents should do is get some spine and enforce the rules against drinking on campus. If they can’t figure out how to do that, maybe somebody who can enforce the rules should have their jobs.
