Legal Drinking Age

In 1984, the United States’ Congress passed The 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act. The act prohibits persons under the age of twenty-one from purchasing and publicly possessing alcoholic beverages. Since the act was passed, legal drinking age has become a largely controversial topic in the United States, especially among high school and college students. The legal drinking age of the United States needs to remain twenty-one, and not be lowered to the age of eighteen.

Congress passed this act mainly to minimize motor vehicle accidents caused by drunk driving. Previously, the minimum drinking age had been eighteen in many states. By the age of eighteen, most American teenagers have been driving for two years or longer. The drinking age was set at twenty-one to teach teens the importance of driving soberly.

The minimum drinking age should not be lowered, due to medical reasons. It has been scientifically proven that alcohol is detrimental to teens’ brain development. Not only does alcohol negatively affect teens in behavioral ways, it changes the way they develop. If a young teen begins to drink alcohol before the age of twenty or twenty-one it will negatively influence his or her health for the rest of his or her life.

Personally I think that instead of lowering the drinking age to eighteen, the government should raise the "adult" age. What I mean by this is that a person should have to be twenty-one to buy cigarettes and tobacco, go to war, vote, etc. A big argument is that if eighteen year olds are considered adults legally, then why can't they drink alcohol legally. I think a better solution is to make the age of responsibility twenty-one.

Ping Pong

Webster defines ping pong as a game of tabble tennis. I define ping pong as my favorite way to waste time and avoid doing my homework. Prime example: as I type this blog, I am watching an intense match between two of Regents' finest on the second floor. The ball, in fact, just hit my computer because of a serve gone awry.

Although ping pong is a popular pastime among Americans, and people all over the world, I personally had never even touched a paddle until last week. Many of my friends played ping pong all first semester whenever they were bored- which was pretty often, apparently. I used to hear all about the games they played as they kept running scores amongst each other. Whenever arguments took place about scoring and other aspects of the game, I just laughed and thought they were crazy for taking it so seriously. But now they have me hooked on it. I have become a ping pong addict.

I blame my recent addiction to ping pong on several factors. Number one: the utter lack of entertainment and places to hang out on campus after midnight. Number two: peer pressure. Sometimes if I want to see my friends, I have to play ping pong otherwise sit alone in my room and watch tv. However, I am by no means complaining. I find the game a lot of fun, a good way to improve hand-eye coordination, and an excellent way to relieve stress and blow off some steam. It's much more stimulating than sitting on the futon and watching movies all night. On top of everything else, it is a great way to meet new people.

Ping pong is very popular here on CUW's campus. However, there is no ping pong club or intramural (not that I know of anyways). My friends and I think a ping pong club would generate a lot of interest. Tournaments would be a lot of fun, especially if the bracket had a large number of people. We are going to try to start a club for both fun and competition. Anyone interested?