succumb to the advertising and peer pressure to start tobacco, I can't help but remember the last hoopla around age groups. That was about the drinking age, back in the 70's. I remember being in the Air Force and unable to walk into a bar and buy anything. We have schizophrenia when it comes to this age group. At some point, we as a country, have to decide when an adult is an adult and when they're still counted as children. I guess that's an unpopular position to take these days... but I'm still now as I was then - a believer that if you are old enough to go to war to fight and kill, then you ought to be old enough to make your own decisions about what to do with and to your body... both good and bad decisions.
Today we have beaucoup types of education about the dangers of smoking (and drinking). There are already laws in place that discourage and/or penalize both. But if the law is about what one can and cannot do at a certain age because they are deemed too immature then we've got to start changing a lot of laws. No more 14 year olds having to birth a baby, e.g.
In addition, we can't go by when the brain has matured to adult status, or we'll be depriving 30 year olds of the right of adulthood. Yet, science shows that even through the 20's, the brain hasn't matured to adult cognition levels.
This is a reactionary law. While one can certainly understand where it's coming from and why, it's still reactionary. You're either an adult or you're not. If you are, then you're entitled to screw up your life in all kinds of ways. If you're not, then you shouldn't be held to account for contracts you signed, etc., that an adult is entitled to do.
Sounds dumb. Even to me. But it's the principle. Just as when one is truly dead has become harder and harder to define; now we're making adulthood hard to define. Worse than that, it plays into the "mama party" that R's so love to make fun of us for. I'm a hard-wired, dyed in the wool Democrat. But I do believe adults have the right to make mistakes. They should also have the right for assistance to walk back their mistakes.
I'm not advancing smoking, drinking, or glorious use of drugs. I'm also not for sending teenagers into a war zone to kill other people. But if you do one and make that person live with the consequences... moral, emotional, and physical; then how can you justify denying the other decisions?
I'm just an old hippy who remembers fighting the ageism crap from the 70's... so don't yell too loudly. I do still have my hearing, even after all the years in front of speakers blasting heavy metal!
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