Silence

      There is so much more to silence that most people don't realize or appreciate; it's beautiful really. Before I got my driver's license, my dad used to drive me to my softball tournaments everyyy weekend. We'd drive for hours sometimes, without saying a word to each other, just listening to the radio. We'd listen to what i want for a while, and then what he'd want, since our taste in music is completely different. Sometimes we'd just drive in silence, and it was awesome. There's something powerful, i guess, about sharing a space with someone without needing to talk, with being completely content with just each others' presence. You don't need to communicate to connect, there's just an energy that you both feel, so you're on the same page, even though you're both lost in completely separate thoughts. It's hard to explain  it, and there aren't many people that I find I can do this with. My dad and my brother, and at times, my best friend Erica. Anyways, people need to cut down on the small talk. Stop trying to force some kind of bond, and just feeeel it.

            

Pick an Age

          So, I was walking around campus in between classes when I see a flyer that says, “Lower the Voting Age to 17!” I laughed at the thought of that, but stopped to read the flyer to learn that it is a real proposal that may be put on the voting ballads. This is absolutely ridiculous. The legal system claims that people under the age of eighteen have minds that are too undeveloped to even make decisions regarding their own well-being. Hence the fact that minors are not allowed to make their own legal, financial, or medical decisions. Yet, apparently, we are considering allowing them to participate in an event that affects the future of our entire nation? Even most adults today are uneducated about the complexities behind most political topics. How many people can accurately describe the past, current, and potentially forthcoming events in our economy, trends in the stock market, foreign policies, home-land security, etc.? Not many. What makes anyone think that the political opinion of high school students will benefit our country? 

            What we should do… is lower the drinking age. Why has this not been on the ballads yet??!! How much logic is there in the fact that people can be sent to war at the age of eighteen, but they can’t consume alcohol? None. At eighteen you can sign a DNR (do not resecitate) form, get married, get drafted for the war, vote, choose to donate an organ, gamble (the lottery), smoke cigarettes, attend sexually explicit clubs, file a lawsuit, change your name, and in six states adopt a child. But alcohol is out of the question? This makes no sense.
             Whether we lower the voting age, or lower the drinking age, our legal system needs to make a decision on which age people are able to make decisions for themselves. Lets pick one age so that at least our reasoning is consistent.