MAY 12, 1972
Responsibility Considered Main Issue of Drinking
'See what the boys in the back room will have."
Well, they'll be having soft drinks if any of them are under 21 because recently the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee killed a bill that would permit 18-year-olds to buy beer and wine, while a companion bill which would enable 18-year-olds to sit on school boards was approved.
Why the discrepancy? If one of the committeemen who opposed the bill were asked this, he would most likely say that an 18-year-old is just not responsible enough to handle liquor.
Certainly responsibility should be considered, as thousands of our nation's traffic fatalities are attributed to the use of alcohol.
Drinking can be enjoyable, but excessive drinking or alcoholism can ruin marriages, families, careers, and whole lives.
But if it is a question of responsibility, which it surely is, it seems strange that
I feel that if there is any lack of responsibility involved in the issue it must be assigned to those legislators who by casting negative votes on this progressive movement buried their heads in establishment sands.
In a speech before the recent Governor's Conference on Youth, Governor Ogilvie proposed more rights for 18-year-olds which included jury serv-ice, the protection of minimum wage standards, and the right to obtain driver's licenses without parental consent, as well as the beer and wine bill.
The 18-year-old drinking bill will probably be reintroduced in the near future. I hope the next time the legislators will pull their heads out of the sands long enough to take a good look at today's youth, and give us this privilege, or better yet, follow Wisconsin's example and make the 18-year-old a legal adult so an end can be put to all of these half-way measures.