{"id":1628,"date":"2019-05-22T18:35:54","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T23:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1628"},"modified":"2019-05-22T18:35:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T23:35:54","slug":"what-is-the-age-of-maturity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1628","title":{"rendered":"What IS the Age of Maturity?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent question in CityView<\/em><\/a>, a Des Moines alternative newspaper, asked readers: \u201cShould the minimum age to purchase tobacco products be raised to 21 in Iowa?\u201d\u00a0 All sorts of answers ensued.\u00a0 One reader said tobacco should be outlawed and marijuana should be legalized.\u00a0 Another said that tobacco should be outlawed, altogether.\u00a0 And, of course, someone compared purchasing cigarettes to buying guns.\u00a0 Whatever.<\/p>\n

The age of maturity should be consistent \u2013 for everything.<\/p>\n

Whether buying cigarettes, purchasing an alcoholic beverage, voting, being tried in criminal court by a panel of your peers, entering the armed forces, gambling, or becoming married without parents\u2019 permission, a person should know that the absolute legal dividing line is a particular age.<\/p>\n

On July 1, 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified and placed into effect.\u00a0 Section 1 of the 26th<\/sup> Amendment states: \u201cThe right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.\u201d\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t vote in a Presidential race until the fall of 1972, although I was already 22 years-old and a veteran.\u00a0 I voted for Angela Davis (Communist Party candidate) out of spite.<\/p>\n

I turned 21 three months after the 26th<\/sup> Amendment was ratified.<\/p>\n

I was drafted into the Army at the age of nineteen.\u00a0 I was told by the government at the age of 19 that I had to involuntarily commit to possibly sacrificing my life for the sake of this country.\u00a0 But I couldn\u2019t drink legally, and I couldn\u2019t vote until after I was discharged from military service at the age of 21.\u00a0 I had very little control over my own destiny.\u00a0 The Amendment did little good for me.<\/p>\n

The Iowa Legislature, under a heck of a lot of pressure from many of us who could now vote, succumbed to the mob mentality of our generation and lowered the age for drinking beer and intoxicating liquors from twenty-one to nineteen in 1972[1]<\/a>.\u00a0 It was too late to affect me.<\/p>\n

Cigarettes are good for no one.\u00a0 I smoked most of my adult life.\u00a0 I have since quit (15 years ago \u2013 and it wasn\u2019t easy), but I remember the power of nicotine over my body and soul.\u00a0 I could always buy cigarettes at the age of eighteen.\u00a0 If I wanted, I could buy them at the age of 14 \u2013 and sometimes I did, but I didn\u2019t smoke regularly until I was 18.\u00a0 Actually, I began chewing before smoking.\u00a0 There was never a tug-of-war over what age we should or should not smoke.\u00a0 The tobacco lobby was too strong.\u00a0 We now get to experience how the tobacco lobby has lost its power in the state Capitol and the halls of Congress.\u00a0 If it can happen to the powerful tobacco lobby; it can happen to any lobbying monster.<\/p>\n

If I can ruin my lungs at eighteen, get killed in a war at eighteen, have the mature and responsible thought process of getting married at eighteen without going through parental permission, have the power to get a tattoo, an abortion, enter into a contract, and all those other things that are legal for normal adults to acclaim, I should be able to drink a legal beer, gamble, and, when I was 18 \u2013 vote!<\/p>\n

Well, as I recall, those were some of the arguments we used in 1972 when we weren\u2019t happy with the age nineteen decision.\u00a0 We wanted more.\u00a0 And we got it.\u00a0 The following year after the Iowa Legislature succumbed to lowering the drinking age to 19, it reduced the legal age for drinking once again.\u00a0 Eighteen was now the legal age for a person to walk up to the bar and say give me Bud Light[2]<\/a>.\u00a0 But not really, Bud Light wasn\u2019t invented \u2013 yet.<\/p>\n

The opposition to the eighteen argument by the terrible teetotalers was that seniors in high school would be going to school drunk.\u00a0 Yeah, that was a possibility (and in very few circumstances \u2013 reality).\u00a0 But think of it, they could be going to high school married, legally smoking (at the time, smoking was an acceptable societal habit), entering contracts, and \u201cOh, my God!\u00a0 Voting!\u201d<\/p>\n

As predicted, alcohol in high school, or at least as soon as school let out for the day, was an occasional problem.\u00a0 But it was a legal problem.\u00a0 And it wasn\u2019t as bad as people claimed it to be.\u00a0 But my generation had yelled about as loud as we were going to get.\u00a0 Those now entering the age of eighteen had taken everything for granted.\u00a0 So, in 1978, the law of a legal drink reverted back to the age of nineteen[3]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember the age of maturity for drinking going back to twenty-one, but the Iowa Code Annotated tells me it was 1997[4]<\/a>.\u00a0 I thought it had happened at least 10, if not 15, years prior to that.<\/p>\n

Today, legal and scientific scholars tell us that the mind does not fully develop until the age of 26.<\/p>\n

In Miller v. Alabama<\/em>, Associate Justice Elena Kagan<\/a> relied upon three \u201csignificant gaps between juveniles and adults\u201d in two previous cases [Roper v. Simmons, 543 U. S. 551 (2005)<\/a> and Graham v. Florida, 560 U. S. 48, 68, 74 (2010)<\/a>] that set precedent for declaring that life sentences without parole for juveniles was cruel and unusual punishment.<\/p>\n

First, children have a \u201c\u2018lack of maturity and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility,\u2019\u201d leading to recklessness, impulsivity, and heedless risk-taking. Roper<\/em>, 543 U. S., at 569. Second, children \u201care more vulnerable . . . to negative influences and outside pressures,\u201d including from their family and peers; they have limited \u201ccontro[l] over their own environment\u201d and lack the ability to extricate themselves from horrific, crime-producing settings. Ibid. And third, a child\u2019s character is not as \u201cwell formed\u201d as an adult\u2019s; his traits are \u201cless fixed\u201d and his actions less likely to be \u201cevidence of irretrievabl[e] deprav[ity].\u201d Id., at 570.<\/p>\n

Miller v. Alabama<\/em>, 567 U.S. 460, 471 (2012).<\/a><\/p>\n

You can drive at the age of 16 and a car can be a potentially dangerous weapon.\u00a0 You may enter the Armed Forces on your own at 18 and be handed a dangerous weapon.\u00a0 However, you cannot drink or gamble legally until you are 21.\u00a0 Is driving a car or carrying an assault weapon less dangerous than having a social drink and playing a game of blackjack?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

Although legal, people my age cannot properly drive; they cannot seem to maneuver those middle turn lanes without having the rear of the auto block the traffic lane.\u00a0 Some people my age cannot drink moderately.\u00a0 Some cannot gamble without getting carried away.\u00a0 Few still smoke, damaging their bodies and those around them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen horrible tattoos on several people my age.\u00a0 Many, including myself, have been divorced \u2013 often the result of an immature decision.\u00a0\u00a0 And, oh my God, some adults vote for idiots.<\/p>\n

I know many teenagers who make better decisions than a lot of folks in my generation.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it, there should be one age of maturity.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s 16, 18, 21, 26, or 65, but let\u2019s be consistent.<\/p>\n

The age restriction that bothers me the most is the one in which a prosecuting attorney can try a minor in adult court.\u00a0 What is so magic about a kid who cannot drive, get an abortion, wear a tattoo, enter the Marines, marry, smoke a cigarette, drink alcohol, gamble, or enter into a legal contract being tried as an adult in district court?\u00a0 If we\u2019re going to have juvenile court, let\u2019s have juvenile court.<\/p>\n

Kids are kids, one way or the other.\u00a0 Justice is a difficult term to define.\u00a0 Everyone has their own opinion of what they perceive as justice.\u00a0 But justice must include equality.\u00a0 If a kid cannot be conscripted into the Army, he or she should not be drafted into the adult judicial system.<\/p>\n

This blog is dedicated to a woman who knew justice and fought for juvenile justice to her end.\u00a0 Sister JoAnne Talarico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Acts 1972 (64 G.A.) ch. 1027, \u00a7 54, changed the legal age definition from twenty-one to nineteen years or more (later amended; see 1973 and 1978 amendment notes, post).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Acts 1973 (65 G.A.) ch. 140, \u00a7 10, reduced the definition of \u201clegal age\u201d from nineteen to eighteen (later amended; see 1978 amendment note, post).<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Acts 1978 (67 G.A.) ch. 1069, \u00a7 1, substituted nineteen years for eighteen years in the definition of \u201clegal age\u201d.
\n[4]<\/a> Acts 1997 (77 G.A.) ch. 126, \u00a7 1, in subsec. 19, substituted \u201ctwenty-one\u201d for \u201cnineteen\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent question in CityView, a Des Moines alternative newspaper, asked readers: \u201cShould the minimum age to purchase tobacco products be raised to 21 in Iowa?\u201d\u00a0 All sorts of answers ensued.\u00a0 One reader said tobacco should be outlawed and marijuana … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,264,17,281],"tags":[639,638,48,438,441,640,637],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","category-fairness","category-issues","category-youth","tag-associate-justice-elena-kagan","tag-cityview","tag-graham-v-florida","tag-miller-v-alabama","tag-roper-v-simmons","tag-sister-joanne-talarico","tag-twenty-sixth-amendment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1629,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions\/1629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}