Thanks to the annual and archaic “turning of the clock” this weekend — does anyone still have clocks that are not automatically adjusted by their phones, computers and mini-processors? — I’ll have one extra hour of daylight to ponder the inane inconsistencies that keep me up at night.
In most of the states of this country when a boy or a girl turns 18 years old they become a man or a woman. In other words, they become adults and are conferred with the rights and responsibilities of being a grown up.
They can legally live on their own without a court order. They can enter into binding contracts and incur personal debt without the aid or security of mother and father.
They can see R-rated movies. They can join the military and kill or be killed in the name of this country. They can be punished by courts and suffer the same consequences as their mothers, fathers, teachers and lawmakers. They can vote. They can run for public office.
They can do all these things not because 18 is a magic time when the world’s wisdom settles on their young heads like a crown of enlightenment, but because, presumably, our American tribe has decided those teens are mature enough to be autonomous.
They cannot, however, purchase alcohol. And if California has its way, they can’t smoke.
You know what I’ll be doing the first day of Daylight Saving Time? Sitting in a bar patio having a drink, smoking a cigar and trying to figure out the line of reasoning this state’s adult lawmakers are following.
On Thursday a bill raising the smoking age from 18 to 21 was passed by the Senate and Assembly. All that’s needed now is the governor’s signature to make it law. With a drink in my hand I’ll be trying to reconcile how we can trust those young people to make some but not all decisions that affect them directly.
I’ll be blowing smoke as I think about Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s interesting proposal to allow 16-year-olds to vote in school board elections.
“I think they have a right to have a say in what’s going on. I think they’re mature enough…they have the maturity level, they have the ability to process information, to make a decision based on research,” Gonzalez told the Sacramento Bee.
And yet somehow that maturity level and ability to make a decision based on research somehow goes away — poof! — when it comes to making up their minds about smoking. At least until they reach the age of 21.
And I’ll be pondering that age and what makes that such a magical number, a time in our lives when we are presumably wiser. That will probaby prompt me to think about that one picture I saw of a state senator who was busted for DUI after being photgraphed carousing with some of his smoking and drinking buddies who are older than 21. Nothing like a good smoke and a drink to get you thinking about how old you have to be to practice common sense.
