My current hero:
A South Carolina lawmaker says underage military servicemen and women should be allowed to drink alcohol.
Rep. Fletcher Smith has sponsored legislation that would allow service members younger than 21 to purchase alcohol if they show a military identification card to a bartender or store clerk.
South Carolina state law prohibits the sale or possession of alcoholic beverages by anyone under 21.
I know all the arguments against this -- such as safety, losing federal highway money -- but I'm from the "if they're old enough to die for their country, etc., etc." school. It irritated me no end that I had to wait three weeks to go out drinking with a friend to celebrate my safe return from a year in Vietnam, simply because I wasn't 21 yet.
We made the rounds of a few night spots that were clustered around downtown, by the way. If you're not old enough to remember what kind of establishments they were, let's just say that retail shopping isn't the only thing downtown has lost. Ah, mammaries memories.
