Media

            This is going to be my final memo for now.  My original research question was:  Under what criteria should the drinking age be lowered to 18?  I found a lot information so far that has supported my hypothesis (that most people will agree with me) and there has been some that does not.  But I am going to hopefully support my hypothesis once more with these videos I found that discuss the matter.  The two videos are related but still different. 

             The first video is a commercial for Amethyst Initiative.  It is a group of college presidents who signed on a petition to lower the drinking age to 18.  It was also founded by a college president by the name of Dr. John McCardell.  The commercial brings up some pretty valid points such as, the fact that you can join the military at 18, vote, and even run for a political office.

            Although the commercial was short, it struck right at the heart with me.  In the beginning of the video it mentioned how the high drinking age can lead to binge drinking.  Lowering the drinking age will help prevent binge drinking in the future because the people will have more time to learn responsibility.  So not only does it being sounds like it makes sense, it can have benefits.  I find this as the right criteria I was looking for the whole time.  All my other sources just gave me reasons but this provided a benefit to lowering the drinking age. 

            The second video is a debate between Laura Dean- Mooney and Dr. McCardell.  It is a good argument on both sides.  Laura Dean- Mooney is head of MADD (mothers against drunk driving) and she thinks that the college presidents were mislead into things when they signed the petition.  She argues that the drinking age of 18 did not work then so, why would it now.  She claims the current age of 21 saved 1,000 young lives yearly.  So it seems like why would we stop with what we are doing now?

            But, Dr. McCardell has a few things to say.  In 2006 alcohol related fatalities reached a ten year high.  So this proves that it does not matter what age we set it to.  We can never stop everyone from making bad decisions.  It is getting worse.  Then he goes on to talk about how it can prevent binge drinking.  The high age makes young people want to do it more and then they consume it in large amounts.  If people learn when to stop at an earlier age it can prevent them from making poor decisions in the future.

            The media also connected to my previous research in some ways.  The debate video helped the main female vs. male belief on the matter. More males were in favor for not denying adults the right to drink.  It is a touchy subject but men and women have different mindsets.  These videos also helped me answer some of my more minor questions like what does the public believe. They helped me find the committee I was looking for in my research.

            Both of videos gave very good information supporting my question.  I found benefits for keeping the current drinking but also benefits for lowering it.  There are both sides to every story.  There was a drop in the number of deaths when we raised it until 2006.  There was a ten year high so that proves that no matter what we set the age to, there will always be drunk driving.  But I am glad I finally found benefits instead of reasons.