The perennial renewal of the 19-only/21-only debate is making it's way into the Press-Citizen and the DI lately.



I have a slightly different view on the issue than I did a few years ago, partly based on personal experience a glitch in the system.



It's a fairly well-established tradition that actors tend to have dinner after the performances. Most of the casts I've been in like to find a moderately quiet place with good food and a capable bartender, then sit around and rehash all the funny, embarassing, really cool stuff that happened during the performance. One father and daughter, who both are amazing actors and have been in many performances with me, have had problems getting into some of the places based on her being below the age of 19. She drinks only water, and is accompanied by her parent, but cannot get in under the terms of the ordinance. We've worked around it so far, as we always do when 'unaccompanied' teenagers are in the cast. But it seems odd to me that a father can allow his daughter to have a glass of wine in their home, yet can't give permission for her to sip on a glass of water and eat her cheese fries while the rest of the cast kvetches. I believe an amendment is in order?? Comments anyone?



UPDATE:

State 29 makes a good point: I was addressing the narrower issue of the age ordinance to enter bars, when I'm actually in favor of either lowering the drinking age to 18, or raising all the other "ages" to 21, as I blogged a few months back. I think the "why can't they drink a beer if they can die in the military" argument is morally valid.



The ordinance is actually just another stop-gap attempt to enforce a law that is questionable in the first place. Also, as I see that much of the world does quite nicely without any "age" whatsoever, and I am in favor of having as few laws as we can get by with and remain a civilized nation, I'm not so sure I won't be revising my opinion again in the future. Why is it we as a nation feel so compelled to make others conform to our ideas of what is moral?



"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits." Mark Twain