i
6CThe Daily Tar HeelMonday. August 27, 1984
.X
V 'A
I f
" ty
skirl's
X
t
Alcohol consumption: civil liberty or public hazard?
Rais
V" :.. MvlMK, .
, V
f" 1
.'"J X'l"-""
fA tV "'! - f
-II 1-TT W-M. -
From page 1
A higher drinking age and tough
liability laws would force these club
owners to keep out as many under-21
drinkers as possible and thus effectively
reduce the number of young people
driving while intoxicated.
It's true that the under-21 crowd could
still obtain alcohol (through friends, at
parties etc.) and probably wind up
drinking and driving, but a higher
drinking age couldn't help but reduce the
number of those willing to take the time
and trouble to go out and drink illegally,
Some opponents of the higher age try
to turn this into a civil rights issue. They
argue that if you're old enough to risk
your life for your country and vote for
the president you should be old enough
to drink a beer. Yet, this issue is not simply
a civil rights question. It is a question of
sparing human lives, many of which
become the innocent victims of drunken
drivers. The right to life of the hapless
victims of drunken drivers is certainly
more urgent than the right of those under
21 to drink. We should all be willing to
tolerate restrictions on freedom for the
public good. It's a clear-cut matter of
priorities.
Another point to be mentioned pertains
to the reason the drinking age should be
uniform throughout the nation. Right
now, drinking ages vary from state to state
and people drive across state lines to
purchase alcohol legally. They end up
driving home while intoxicated and
turning these state borders into "blood
alleys." Obviously, a uniform age would
eliminate the tragic statistics that pertain
to these dangerous stretches of highway.
Again, the higher drinking age will not
solve the problem of drunken driving.
Many people under 21 will continue to
drink probably more privately and
continue to drive while intoxicated. But
the fact that a law will be widely disobeyed
doesn't make it wrong. Considering the
urgency and importance of the widespread
problem of drunken driving among so
many of today's youths, a national
drinking age of 21 appears to be the most
realistic and immediately effective
approach to curbing the problem and,
most importantly, to saving so manv lives.
Ben Perkowski, a junior English major
from Nassau Bay, Texas is a staff writer
for The Daily Tar Heel.
Support the
larch of Dimes
Z2 BIRTH DEFECTS FOUNDATION!
M
HEWLETT PACKARD
' .. - -f-llktMMtsi ,
; n"'T'!F?!
L i
41 CX... $259.99
MJ41CV...S1 95.99
HP11 C$62.99
HP12C. $95.99
HP15C. $95.99
HP1 6C $95.99
HP75D. $879.99
HPIL Module... $99.99
HPIL Cassette or
Printer $369.99
For the Student
west
In NV call (702) 588-5654
Deptsoo, P.O. BOX 6689
Staleline. NV 89449
VISA
east
800-233-8950
In PA call (717) 327-9575
Deptsoo. 477 E Third Street
Williamsport. PA 17701 .
CAMPUS REPG TJEEDED
We need Sales Representatives on your campus to sell Hewlett
Packard Calculators and other computer products. You'll make
generous commissions selling only the finest quality name brands
on the market. Call today to see if you qualify Tor a Campus
Representative Kit. No investment is required.-
THE Daily Crossword by Martha J. DeWitt
ACROSS
1 Fellow
5 Cut
10 Pack full
14 Nicety ,
15 Kind of wind
16 Not on tape
17 Senseless
19 "Beware the
of March"
20 Pavarottiand
Domingo
21 Dinner wine
23 Mongrel
24 Top army man:
abbr.
25 Bid
29 Hazardous
enterprise
32 Jungle sound
33 Passe
35 Pung
36 Opp. of dep.
37 Reagan to
friends
33 Rah in Madrid
39 Cluster
41 Deign
43 Havoc
44 Rises
46 Annoys
48 Strained
49 Footlike part
50 Attainment
53 Like an egg
white
56 Wimbledon
champ
57 Eccentric
60 Mark of the
villain
61 Roux ingredient
62 Days before
holidays
63 Vortex
64 Seethes
65 Sp. painter
DOWN
1 Gr. letter
2 Senator from
Colo.
3 Yorkshire river
4 Santa's
reindeer
5 Churned
6 Son of
Aphrodite
n n n n r 15 rg n rj i9 t -10 in i12 113 1
16
, y mm, '
wmmm - J 21 22" "
tttaartailai-Bi it.mVi mmmm - mmm S.fM , .-,,mm mmmm B.W mmw IMmMm
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
w, . - mmm
"36 """" " 37 "" ' ' ' ' 38
HM Ba HMMH MOT ulH JUbtMl' Mhi ,UfllU,PJ HHV MMMM ff-f (MM BMMM
44 45 46 47
mmm . uaiuuLwipwii ni mmmm hmimmmm
48 49
TcTTsT' . XT' IM " " 54"55Tl
56 57 58 . 59
"63 64 "" 65 " "" "
1984 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
82784
7 Vehicle for
transportation
8 Kind of cheese
9 Tied again
10 Customers
11 Absurd
12 State with
authority
13 Tableland
18 Journey for
pleasure
22 Racket
25 Take to the
stump
26 Public meeting
place
27 Improbable
28 Pub game
29 Malice
30 Kindled over
31 Barbara and Sir
Anthony
34 Overly
40 Decorative
openwork
41 Detonates
42 Cottonwoods
43 Lives
Saturday's Puzzle Solved:
T i E I A IM I I T I A I L I L r
LIT
OIR B SJ SO KIT El
RAH I SJL T I L T t j TOWEL
A T "Op BETA DM I S E RjY
HORSEMACKEREL T
.r E L SlZl. A T ETjT 0 S
T Rio L L lJC ARE Sir K A
HAMMHEn JLA o s H air Ik
U L N aTjO" A S T "3 L A NJATT
deji iITcruFPIr j b a nT
Z3 BAR N. D 0.0. RSK ATT E
1NU R E D A M A TTOD" A M
ROSESlUTES THm L E
ament legsITron
INIE SiTlSLjTlRlA.lYLi
H
N
SE N D
45 Old Shetland
viol
- 47 Containing
little fat
50 Bargain
hunter's
delight
51 Secondhand
82784
52 Philippine
Borneo sea
53 Mucilage
54 Split
55 Belg. river
58 Watson or Kite
59 White House
monogram
Lowsr
From page 1
in these states has had no measureable
effect on safety and has not led to decrease
in alcohol consumption and sales.
I feel the young people of our nation
have been wrongfully targeted. These
people who are old enough to vote, to
be drafted, to get married, to have families
and to be held legally responsible for their
actions in almost every way, will not be
afforded the same kind of responsibility
where it concerns the consumption of
alcohol. When we look at the statistics,
the unfair treatment of the younger age
group becomes even clearer. Men between
the ages of 25 and 44 account for 27
percent of the population and 47 percent
of drunk driving arrests, while those
between the ages of 18 and 24 account
for 13 percent of the population and 30
percent of arrests. The problems with
alcohol in our country are real and spread
throughout all age groups, not confined
to youth.
Congress is working hard right now
trying to find ways of putting young
people to work. This new legislation will
have a tremendous effect in putting young
people under 21 people who, because
of the legislation in most states, can't work
in a place that serves alcohol if they
themselves are under the legal drinking
age out of work. Please don't get me
wrong. I'd be the last person to weigh
lives against dollars. But more than 30
percent of the five million American food
service workers are under the age of 21.
With this legislation, as many as one
million young people could lose their jobs.
This may translate into young people who
can no longer work their way through
college and are even, in their frustrated
indolence, driven to drink.
When Secretary of Transportation
Elizabeth Dole was asked about her
opinion of the legislation, she brought up
"blood alleys" namely, state borders
over which teens from a state with a high
drinking age travel to a state with a lower
minimum age and said the legislation
would eliminate these hazardous zones.
This is one point I agree with; states should
have a uniform drinking age. But why not
18, or 19? A minimum age of 19 would
have a favorable effect on keeping alcohol
out of high schools without curtailing the
freedom of too many responsible young
adults.
One thing that personally bothers me
is that the restaurant and hospitality
industries have historically taken the
blame for society's bad habits. Our
industries now more than ever .-are
actually trying to make people aware of
not drinking too much and, in particular,
not drinking and then driving. At any rate,
whatever good we have been able 2to do
will become even more restricted as those
between the ages of 18 and 21 are cut
off from this kind of controlled drinking
environment.
Society, as a whole, needs to spend
more time educating its children about
alcohol: If it had done so in the past, the
25 to 44 age group of men wouldn't be
the horrendous drunk driving problem
that they are today. We have begun to
enact legislation that punishes drunke
ness: that much is commendable. We need
to make sure these laws are carried out
instead of making battlegrounds of our
courtrooms to see if the accused can get
off one more time. We should be more
realistic about changing society's values.
We are going to do it. People are slowly
growing wise to the abuse of alcohol.
Liquor consumption in the United States
dropped 11.6 percent between 1973 and
1983.
However this laudable trend may be
impeded by the atmosphere of resentment
to which the scapegoating of young adults
could give rise. A permanent improve
ment in our nation's uses of and attitudes
toward alcohol would more likely occur
as the result of a society banding together
to set a good example for future
generations.
Mickey Ewell, owner of Spanky's
restaurant and bar in Chapel Hill, is the
second vice president of the North
Carolina Restaurant Association. Frank
Rexford assisted with this column.
rtisis neede
AN .
M fillMg IF' - 1
Ho, ho, ho,
Merry Christmas!
A caricature of Daily Tar Heel editor Jeff Hiday, drawn by David
Washburn. Many creative students like Washburn have found a forum
for their work on the pages of the DTH.
The Daily Tar Heel needs you, staff artists. Whether
doodler or 'schooled sketcher, your talents are needed
by your campus' leading newspaper. A newspaper cannot
live by photographs alone; the DTH frequently employs
drawings and graphic work in conjunction with feature
articles and back page opinion pieces.
Artists need only three to four free hours a week to
contribute to the paper. If interested, please call Mike Toole
or Frank Bruni at the DTH office in the Carolina Union
and arrange with one of them an informal meeting during
which you can show examples of your work. Go ahead;
nothing ventured, nothing gained.
962-02456
A f Jjj "li Q
V N
IV J 1 J J kJ J I U I J J s! kj
nmunai miimiil ' - - ; 1liniiinin mr ' , , , i - r nni 1 i i 1 i nn illiin.iij 1mm. mini - , S
With First Citizens Bank 24 automatic teller at our main
office on Franklin Street, you're never more than minutes away
from your money day or night.
Add in two more Chapel Hill offices at University Mall,
and on Elliott Road at East Franklin, and you Ve got four of the
best reasons we know 01 for
making us your student
advisor on economic affairs.
.WttMVl ijjtrf"inj 1 1 ttwiii
IF
Advice You Can Count On
From The Bank You Can Trust1
llMi First Citizens Bank & Trust Omipany.
Mcmlu r FDJC.AihI hur Cotninmiitw