Now, I do not attempt to argue against or for these responses only to put my opinion about them forward, also, not using as much research as they do~
Here goes...
I answer "yes" because at 18 I am an adult, plain and simple. I have the rights and responsibilities of an adult finally granted to me. In that, the most shocking rights I am given are
- Having sex (and making money off of it via porn)
- Smoking cigarettes
- Killing
- Being executed for killing
- Getting into debt
- Also, I am finally once and for all considered an "adult" and I and only I (not my parents) am allowed to consent or refuse treatment for medical problems and so on much to the joy or dismay of my previously legally controlling parents.
I wouldn't call being executed a good thing, but still, I am able to be legally killed by the government if they find me guilty of unlawfully killing someone else. Now, with the me being able to kill part that implies that since I am able to join the military and handle death-inducing-weapons that I can kill. I have been given the power over life and death, legally.
I can have as much sex as I want with those also at the age of consent, which does vary state-to-state but is generally thought of being "absolute" at the age of 18. Absolute meaning I have no worries whatsoever if I have sex with someone who is 18 years old and I am 18 years old, or older. At least, so long as it's not rape...then we have problems...but you understand what I mean.
I can kill myself. I'm not talking about suicide, well... in a way I am... but instead I'm talking about doing an activity that can and has lead to death...many deaths. That would be caused by smoking cigarrettes.
Oh my!
But I am unable to drink alcohol?
Wow, life's a bitch.
Why is the age 21 and not 18 anyways?
Traffic accidents and binge drinking.
No kidding. I think it's safe to say and/or assume that once you hit the magical age of 21 you'll not do these things anymore.
EDIT: Finally I have the motivation to continue this posting.
A Brief History of the Drinking Age (VERY BRIEF)
In 1984 MADD lobbied the crap out of the government to get the drinking age raised back, federally, to 21 from 18. It was lowered to 18 during the Vietnam war so soldiers (and non-soldiers) could drink legally as adulthood was lowered from 21 to 18 during that time as well. Yes, prior to 1969 those under 21 were not only NOT allowed to purchase alcohol but they weren't even legal adults! And even prior to that the age was much lower. I don't have the exact dates but the entire idea of adolescense is no more 150 years old!
The rise of child-labor laws actually firmly established "childhood" in a legal context. But then took it away again by forcing children (their wills are not cared for) to attend school until 14 or 16 depending on the state and some states now are wanting to raise the drop-out age to 18 effectively (and actually) eliminating the ability of our young people to drop out of our increasingly prison-like school systems in their own cry for freedom from incarceration for merely committing the offense of being young!
Within the past 150 years childhood and being one has been increasingly criminalized with the sexual consent age in Texas being raised from 12 (in the late 1880s and prior to that I assume there wasn't one) to the eventual 17 it is now. That's right even if it's consensual, even if both parties agree, whether or not you do is irrelevant, they are committing a crime if both parties are under 17 in Texas as it stands now. Medical consent laws are no different, in fact, also in Texas foster-children (those owned by the state... the ultimate form "in loco parentis") have more rights than those owned by their parents! If you're under 18 in Texas, unless you're emancipated and not a foster child you are forbidden from consenting to any medical treatment or refusing that very treatment. There have been some cases outside of Texas, at least I think, where a 17-year old man with leukemia no longer wanted to suffer through chemo and/or radiation therapy and sought to stop it. HE WAS PHYSICALLY FORCED BY THE JUDGE AND DOCTORS TO UNDERGO UNWANTED TREATMENT THAT WOULD BE ILLEGAL AND AN OUTRIGHT VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS TO GIVE TO SOMEONE OVER 18!
What's wrong with this country?
Why the fuck do we treat our citizens so poorly?
IT NEEDS TO CHANGE NOW!
