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That poster above seems to be involved in this story (http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-lisoci1012750539may09,0,6835425.story - broken link). Of note:Note that in this instance, college students are being charged when other, younger college students are consuming alcohol in their home. The stupidity of this ranks up there with charging two high school kids with statutory rape if they have sex.
Clearly the law was intended to curb permissive parents from allowing minors to gather and consume alcohol (a dubious justification to begin with), but as we typically see, the law will be used by law enforcement to punish anyone who falls within the technicalities.
if a bar were serving underage kids, we'd all expect that bar to suffer some sort of penalty - no matter the age of the owner of the bar. I don't why older college students should get a free pass for allowing underage kids to drink at their homes. The drinking age is ridiculous, but selectively enforcing the social host law is stupid as well.
In my opinion there's no philosophical difference between a host handing out alcohol to a minor, or allowing a minor to bring his/her own alcohol into someone's house and consuming it there. The issue -- in my mind at least -- is one of being responsible for what happens within the confines of the house that the owner or host is considered to be in legal control of.
There are several current laws (some local, state or Federal) that I personally think are ridiculous and in my opinion should be changed or eliminated entirely. What those laws are has no relevance to this discussion (although as I said before, I VERY strongly object to the idea of lowering the drinking age to 18 and if it ever came to that I would actively lobby against it) However, I don't consider my personal opinion a license to flout any law. If I were to deliberately break ANY law and got caught, I'd expect to suffer the consequences. It's called "accountability for one's actions."
No one is suggesting that you should be surprised to be prosecuted if you break the law, however you can and should oppose the law if you don't believe that it is just.
It's not unreasonable to oppose further restrictions on an activity that you don't believe should be restricted in the first place. If you believe that lowering or abolishing the drinking age is a good thing, then philosophically, it doesn't make sense to sit back and let the government further restrict drinking (or drugs, or gay marriage, or whatever the issue is).
Ask the mom of the young boy who recently died from alcohol poisoning if she thinks that the law is wrong. Someone does need to be held reponsible for young teenagers who aren't able to manage themselves .
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People may not recall what you said to them, but they will always remember how you made them feel .
Ask the mom of the young boy who recently died from alcohol poisoning if she thinks that the law is wrong. Someone does need to be held reponsible for young teenagers who aren't able to manage themselves .
The law would only have made this child get poisoning out in the woods, or behind the walmart, etc. Kids will drink underage no matter what, the law and the high drinking age simply pushes it into more clandestine locations that encourage even more binge drinking rather than social drinking at a bar restaurant, or more acceptable and public locations. With limited time and access, young people switched from beer to hard liquor and consume more of it to compensate for the constraints of having to hide and don't have the chance to learn responsible drinking behavior.
This law is ridiculous. As far as the "college house" scenario....OK, I went to college...how many other people went to college here? I know some of you might have to think back a long way, but tell me how exciting it would have been if there were no parties whatsoever in your entire 4+ years? There is no way to have such a party and have any way of knowing who is 21 or younger. Ridiculous.
As far as the "mom lets kids get drunk at house" scenario....I hope they realize these kids are just gonna be forced to get drunk in woods and sewers, wandering around the streets instead. I'd rather know that kids are doing stupid things under the supervision of an adult.
Ask the mom of the young boy who recently died from alcohol poisoning if she thinks that the law is wrong. Someone does need to be held reponsible for young teenagers who aren't able to manage themselves .
I'd ask her where she was while her kid was out drinking. Also, nice appeal to emotion, why don't you just type "WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!" and be done with it.
If you are a parent , you know that you cannot be everywhere all the time.
And also that no matter how well you brought your kids up, as sure as the sun rises in the East they will occasionally do something incredibly mind-bogglingly and uncharacteristically stupid and/or self-destructive when out from under your parental watchful eyes. Even more likely when they are with others anywhere near their own age.
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