Dumping the 21 and older law: "If you can slap your Benjamin Franklin on top of the bar, pull up a stool and have a beer!" A person's age is just a number, and it's a poor way to judge a person's maturity. Think about it: How many adults do you see prancing around and acting silly as well as the other way around? Six Flags and Disney don't have an age requirement to get on the roller coasters instead, they use a cardboard cutout of a person saying, "You must be above this height to ride this attraction". It's the old fashioned measuring stick that holds the fate of every little kids possibility of having a fun day at the amusement park. That's a great idea that should be put to use for everything, like the groups at battle with lawmakers in Washington hoping to get the drinking age lowered back to 18. Now, it's true that it's taken many years and a lot of red tape to raise the age to 21 in the first place but that law never took off that well. There's always some way to "beat the system" and get what you want if you really want it. Now, I've heard teenagers on television lately and others who write letters to the newspaper thinking that because they're old enough to get married and go to Iraq at 18 that they should be able to buy a six pack at the liquor store. That's a pretty good argument, but why only lower it to 18? Do like they do in Europe and if someone can reach the top of the bar and slap down a euro, they can buy whatever they want no matter how old they are. You may say this idea is nuts however, Europe doesn't have problems like we do in the United States. It should be expected that lowering age limits on entry to different places and purchase certain things will open the floodgates for a little while. Sooner or later though, everything levels off over time and when kids no longer find it a need to get a fake I.D., the excitement and challenge will wear off and the controversey will go away. High schools already have parts of the school put aside for pregnant students and some even have nurseries... What's wrong with having one wing of the school dedicated to rehab? The bottom line is, the economy can't get back on it's two feet by itself, we have to nudge it along to get it going again. This is a solution that benefits everyone from store owners to truck drivers and finally trickles down to being extra money in your pocket. It's been said that teenagers do most of their spending on leisure activities
