Change The Drinking Age?

Americans seem to do everything backwards. We ban everything we don't like then close our eyes when it goes on. The problem is that familys don't have parents that educate their kids about lifes responsibilities. They want to tell their kids that these things don't exist. That leads to a real problem when they have to face these things in their life when they get older.
Drinking is not satan's curse on us get over it. Kid's need to drink responsibly and they can only learn that by being exposed to it at a young age, so that it is not an issue when the grow up. The United States tells everyone that drinking is bad, so what do the kids want to do, drink. They drink when they get the opportunity and that is not under safe circumstances. Since they have to hide the fact that they drink from everyone, they hide and sneak and that becomes part of the culture.
I started drinking at 12 and I did not drive drunk and now I rarely drink. I don't recommend that kids start drinking at 12, but they will start at some point and it is better to teach people that they don't have to drink until they are unconscious to have a good time. I don't know anyone who didn't start drinking before the legal age. People who don't are the exception not the rule. Throwing people in jail will not stop people from drinking. It has to be a choice and making that choice involves having some type of education about it's affect and the respsibilities that go with it.
How do kids celebrate their 21st birthday. They go to a bar and drink and drink and drink. Why, because we have made the drinking age a rght of passage in their lives. Drinking should not be a right of passage, but it is because we in this country want to hide from our responsibilities.
I hear it all the time. The national excuse, "well he/she is 21 now, so I'm not responsible any more." There is a national disease in this country and it is avoiding responsibility. Kids turn a certain age and suddenly they are on their own. Kids turn a certain age and they are automatically responsible. It is a totaally unrealitic viewpoint. Resposibility implies that you have an idea of what society deems as acceptable. That means that they have to be educated by someone about things. The reality in this country is that kids learn from their peers, because adults have lied to them or haven't even mentioned things. How can they be aware of their responsibilities when every kids has different peers with different ideas of what is acceptable and how to be responsible.
Kids should be taught about drinking in a non-judgemental way and their parents should discuss what resposible drinking is. You can't guarantee that they will not make a mistake, but you can make it less likely.
The other problem in this society is that almost everyone with a car drinks and drives. It's a fact. Do they all get caught, no. Kids know their parents drink and drive. I doubt that there is at least one time that you have been to a family party and had a beer and driven. To you that doesn't count, because you can rationalize it, but to the child it's cut anad dry you drank then you drove. This country needs to stop pretending that alcohol is not available in this country to their kids. Get your heads out of your asses stop trying to look the cleavers (Leave it to Beaver) and deal with it. Laws haven't stopped anything in this country. Having a law keeps the people who would not do something anyway from doing it. I happen to drive the speed limit, but you all know that you don't. Now you are rationalizing it by making an excuse i'll bet. Have I ever sped yes. We have all looked down and said I didn't know I was going that fast and a lot of us just don't care. The law doesn't stop it from happening. A law is only as good as the people.
It's time to leave fantasy land now kid's are going to drink. You did. Your parents did and you need to stop denying the elephant in the room. I guarantee you that the majority of kids are drinking before 18, law or no law. Now I am hearing the next cliche line that shows total denial, "I know my kid and he/she wouldn't do that or You don't know my kid". It's time people dealt with reality in this country. I know it's not pleasant, but there is only so far out into the middle of nowhere you can move to preserve your delusions.

American's are ignorant

The government and the news agencies know your ignorant. Yes your ignorant. The first thing to know is that the government does not include real statistics for unemployment, inflation,or the state of the economy. We could be in the deepest depression in history and you'ld know it, but they aren't going to tell you. Oh you say. Economists would. Sorry wrong again. Most economists are either working for the government or getting funds from it, so no they are not going to tell you.
Unemployment does not count everyone who is not working. It only includes people who are getting benefits (basically). So when your unemployment runs out you are no longer considered to be unemployed. This is how the government keeps the unemployment numbers at between 5 and 6 percent. The real number could be as high as 20 percent. They aren't going to tell you, because they want to get reelected and keep their jobs. Inflation figures are a lie too. The government does not include energy and most of what is breaking you. This is a fact. The real numbers on inflation could be as high as 25% (maybe more). The government doesn't count the rising price of luxury items. What is a luxury item? Well one of them is your car! After all you don't realy need it. You don't even know what the gross national product is. No big deal except this is one of the main economic indicators that the government uses to tell how healthy the economy is. The gross national product is the amount of goods produced and sold. The problem is it doesn't take into account who's buying them. We could sell a billion dollars worth of goods to china and you could all be sitting on your wallets and the government would tell you things are great. It doesn't matter if it was made in Mexico and assembled here or if it came here 90% made and shiipped with the companies label. It counts. So while your your living on the street, because you lost your job and the bankforeclosed. The government tells you things are wonderful.
The mainstream press in The United States won't give you the real numbers either, because they don't investigate squat. They are busy keeping theirs sources happy so they can get access to the governments elected officials and their employees. The government tells the press what they can report on and how much of it they can report. Half of everything that goes on in the government is either secreet or top secret for political reasons. You ask how couldn't they know about something important. The fact is they knew, but they wanted to get reelected, so they made it secret from you. These people are not ignorant. They have some of the brightest people in The United States working for them. They pretend not to know things, because they don't want you to know they knew. They know that most of the calls and emails and texts that are sent in this country are intercepted and read before they ever get to their legitimate recipient. So, why don't they come after you, because they can't admit it. Now you might think they don't use anything they get. Wrong again. They find other evidence they can show the public to indict people by following what they've learned by ease dropping on you. The fact is that when they say they stumbled upon it accidently, it's probably from an illegal source originally. But you are stupid. You think these things have no affect on you. Think again the government is watching all your online banking. They know all your credit card numbers and bank accounts. They know your balance and all this information is in government computers. It's on the hard drives of laptops, which they don't tell you, but get stolen all the time. The only blessing is that the files are highly encrypted, so most of the time they just get sold and the new owner erases everything and puts windows on it. You can shred everything and put a padlock on your mailbox, but all you information is floating around for anyone to see. Now, I know you don't believe this, but the credit reporting agencies get it from somewhere and they know more about you than you think. So what's the bottom line? The government is not in business to serve you. It's is a 6 headed creature that wnats to exist whether your here or not. The government will out last all of us and it has no interest, but in sustaining itself. It may help you, but that is just, so that is just in the interest of it's own self preservation. myoungatheart5@yahoo.com