C. O. Bonham

I haven’t posted anything in a while so here is an extra long one.

Every age comes with certain privileges that we can choose to partake in.  At 16 we can drive at, 17 watch an R rated movie and, 18 we become voting citizens of our great nation. But then nothing truly interesting happens at 19 or 20 and then at 21 is finally given the right to legally buy and consume alcohol. Why? It’s such an odd number to choose? At least 18 has a certain logic, you can vote you graduate from high school and start worrying about things like student loans and car payments, 19 would at least follow in sequence. In Ohio we have to renew our drivers license every four years. So if they made the drinking age 20 then they could get rid of that extra year before your first renewal.

Does anyone really think that a 21-year-old will really be anymore mature than an 18-year-old? Is it some medical fact that at 18 alcohol will affect your brain cells but not at 21? Drinking will kill your brain functions no matter what age you are.

I found this website that seems to answer the 21 question though I have no idea where they got their facts from.

http://www.madd.org/underage-drinking/why21/

My question is really Why Drink at all? What is the point? And how can people stand it? Alcohol messes with your memory and it dulls senses it ruins your reaction time and it just tastes bad.

The only time that I am ever really satisfied after a bit of spirits is when I am sick. I think of it this way Alcohol is used to disinfect therefore drinking it when you’re sick will disinfect your insides. Maybe not technically true but it makes me feel like I’m doing something to get better.

In Victorian era fiction we read about Spirits being used as a medicine, a restorative, a calming agent, something to warm your insides, and yes like I said a disinfectant.

Am I proposing that we bring prohibition back? No. Consuming alcohol just doesn’t hold any appeal for me. It doesn’t make you have more fun it just shuts off your common sense. So drinking at home with people you know and who you know want the best for you is fine but anywhere else is just Illogical.

In his autobiographical book I Am Spock Leonard Nimoy, writes a fictitious encounter between Spock and one of his many female fans. She has just offered Spock a drink and this is how Spock refuses her:

Spock: Madam, my mind is in precisely the condition it should be. I see no reason to alter that condition with stimulants or depressants.

Spock is right, if you are thinking clearly and you are walking without bumping into things and falling down, who in their right mind would want to change it? Personally I do not like to feel stupid and clumsy, trust me I feel that way enough when I’m sober there is no way I would purposely place myself in that state of mind.

I have actually used Nimoy’s quote before to turn down an invitation to go out to a bar. Though after that I didn’t get many invitations to anything. Oh well, people who need to be inebriated to have fun mustn’t be very good company anyway.

If we could start using it like a medicinal helper instead of, “A sure sign of a good time,” (Bud light’s slogan) then maybe the drinking age wouldn’t matter so much. Maybe if people would stop doing stupid things with stuff that should be used sparingly then maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about monitoring alcohol usage in the extremes that we do. But people are stupid and they do drink to be numb and to get stupid. So the illogic behind the drinking age must be overshadowed by the illogic of drink itself.