Letters to the Editor: Lower the drinking age? Are you crazy?
Lower the drinking age? Are you crazy?
Recently, I have read that our state Legislature wants to lower our drinking age to 18. Old age has some benefits. Social Security is nice, as is Medicare. Apparently, I am able to buy “senior” coffees at some fast food joints for less than a buck. Probably the best part of being a senior is the wealth of experiences and situations I have gone through, and survived to tell about.
Way back in the early 1970s, I was doing seat time at Hobart High in Hobart, Ind. The Brickies. Our mascot was Johan, who looked an awful lot like Purdue Pete. When not reading the paper about Vietnamization, pulling U.S. troops out of SE Asia, I was waiting for the weekends. The neighboring state of Michigan had an 18-year-old age limit for the purchase of alcohol.
The Wayside bar. Every weekend the parking lot was full of cars sporting Indiana and Illinois license plates. Those two states still had 21-year-old age requirements. So what are young teens to do? ou cracked the code! Hit I-94, baby. You’d been slaving away in Miss, not Ms. back then, Payne’s economics class and deserved to let your hair down with all of the other tri-state teens.
A buddy had a '68 Dodge van. Probably worth a whole lot now. Come Saturday, we all piled into said van and headed east, young man. Drive there was somewhat uneventful. Daylight and everybody was stock sober. Once one entered the Wayside, the world changed. The band was playing Slow Ride by Foghat. Those who arrived before we did already had an advantageous slight buzz going. Man, those Illinois girls were looking good, too. Especially after the third beer!
Right now, most of you are questioning the parental skills of my folks. My folks were awesome. We were teens. We had seen older graduated Brickies come back in body bags and attended the tree plantings in their honor in our church yards. Parents were a little looser then. No doubt the others from Illinois also had the same situations at home and school.
Cool story, bro? Nope. It is a wonder that so many of us made it home. The situation was not a good one. Kids will be kids. They will want to see how green the grass (we now have that, too) is on the other side of the fence with legal booze. This story will repeat itself. The stakes now, however, are even higher. One might even extrapolate similar situations at our borders with Ohio and Wisconsin?
I-94 is an awful road to drive, full of trucks and vacationers wanting to enjoy our West Michigan shoreline. Who can blame them? There were far fewer cars then. We did not have the driving distractions that kids have now. Texting was not an issue. Cars today are also faster. More safety features than the old Dodge van, but way faster.
What about the other innocent by-drivers who happen to share the roadways with those teens from Michigan and out of state who take advantage of this law? Families in minivans towing the popup camper? The truckers who deliver the stuff we require to live our comfortable lives? Motorcyclists? Get the idea?
This was a dumb idea then and we had the foresight and intelligence to repeal it. Why do something stupid like this again? Like Nancy Reagan said: Just say no. This is anything but pro-life.
Jeff Raywood
Holland
It's not funny anymore ... if it ever was
I used to find a lot of things about the Trump presidency actually quite humorous. His comments about drinking bleach, dropping nuclear bombs on hurricanes and wind turbines causing cancer were funny in a bazaar disbelief kind of way.
But now that the facts from the Jan. 6 select committee are coming out, I find it all a sad commentary about a sad man who shamelessly duped millions of people into believing that the very institutions that enabled him to become president of the greatest country in the world are now all corrupt.
He continues to dupe these people into sending him millions of dollars making them believe that only he can fix the problem that has been proven nonexistent countless times. The violence and division he caused does not move his unpatriotic conscience to any degree of remorse, as he continues to spread the big lie.
The humor is gone. What's left is sadness and an unsettling sense of worry about the future of our country and the democracy which makes it great.
Frank Miller
Park Township
XXXXX
Recently, I was watching TV with my 8-year-old son, when one of the characters mentioned the word “sex.” Gulp! I looked over at my kiddo, who looked at me, both of us with that deer-in-a-headlight expression, and both went on with watching the show.
Later, my partner and I discussed the situation and decided it may be time to start having more open conversation about sex and the many iterations of the word. From the beginning, we have worked hard to have body-positive and accurate conversations with our son, including using correct terminology to describe body parts. However, we have not gone into much detail regarding the many facets of sex and sexuality.
From previous work, I have used the resources posted on the Ottawa County Health Department website related to having conversations with children about healthy views of sex and sexuality. They have been providing packets of information for parents in various locations around the county for years. However, when I went to the sexual health website, I discovered this information has been removed. I was disappointed about this and wondered why this content had been taken down.
Through further research, I discovered that a local group has been the impetus for the removal of this and other helpful information. As a parent, I want the freedom to have accurate and healthy information that will help ensure my child becomes a healthy and informed individual. This can only happen when the resources are readily available within our community. In fact, research shows that having access to this type of information can help children and young adults make better decisions around sex and sexuality and it is this information that parents can provide to their kids that may prevent unwanted pregnancies.
It is my hope our community will support the Ottawa County Health Department in sharing information that can help educate our children in ways that are age appropriate and beneficial to our community. Parents and guardians have the right to choose what information to share and teach their children. For those of us looking for resources, we look to our local experts and would like to have access to their expertise.
Brian Highstreet
Holland
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Letters to the Editor: Lower the drinking age? Are you crazy?
