By sheer luck, an impromptu pre-interview has already happened for our project. During my advising meeting with my honors advisor, Dr. Schaeffer, we just started shooting the breeze (who knew my nerdy Bio professor was so talkative?) Anyways, we’d realized that both he and my mother went to the same college: West Virginia Wesleyan. And, most importantly, alcohol was legal for 18-year-olds in the 70’s in West Virginia. And so, we proceeded to converse about his views about alcohol laws, and I found that Dr. Schaeffer has a strong belief, obtained from experience, about how the drinking age should in fact be lowered in order to eliminate the “forbidden fruit” phenomenon that causes so many college students to take it a bit too far. He’d explained how his experiences with alcohol (even as a frat boy!) were nothing but positive; he described its use as “usually enjoying a few beers while hanging out–it was never a big deal”. Hm. Interesting.
However, what was most interesting to me was how he’d explained that lowering the drinking age would involve some sacrifices. We can’t have it all; that’s why we don’t have it all now. At the end of the day, there must be a greater/lesser “degree” question of balance between safety and personal freedom. So, Schaeffer suggested that if the law was to allow 18-year-olds alcohol legally, that it would be wise for the campus to crack down on cars, ultimately so that they are prohibited. I do personally think this makes sense–often people’s issues with alcohol and alcohol laws are directly tied to their views on the issue of drunk driving–however I do think students will not be too happy about this either, especially those who do not partake in underage drinking. However, it is this issue of sacrifice and degree that plays an especially important part of our public controversy topic, and it’ll certainly be interesting to expand on as our project progresses!