Drunks interrupt dreams

One weekend, I was roused from my slumber by the sound of loud voices and a ground-shaking bass line. After a moment of fumbling for my glasses, I glanced at the clock: 3:37 a.m. Peering through the window, I found a handful of inebriated students surrounding a car, which was parked frighteningly close to mine, with the doors wide open and the stereo system blaring. They were singing off-key at the top of their lungs to a dreadful country song and yelling at one another for cigarettes.\nAside from the fact that I feared for my car's safety, I probably wouldn't have paid anymore attention to these drunken noise-makers except that I had guests on this particular weekend. Looking over, I found that one of them had covered her head with a pillow in a desperate attempt to muffle the noise. I slammed the window shut, thus forgoing the cool breeze that had been billowing through all night, wishing that I could block out the rumble of the bass as well.\nHaving just turned 21, I am legally able to purchase and consume alcohol. I have no problem with the occasional beer, but with each passing day, I find myself more than willing to relinquish this new privilege for another 10 years in favor of stricter laws governing alcohol consumption, if only to ensure that I can get a decent night's rest. \nThe ideal solution, of course, would be to pass a law forbidding the sale of alcohol to anyone under the psychological age of 21, as half of the college-age students in this country have the maturity level of 13-year-olds. (If you don't believe me, take a walk down Kirkwood Avenue on a Thursday night). But since this solution would require funding for testing, which isn't available in this age of multi-trillion dollar debt, I propose raising the drinking age to 30. \nStatistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have shown that raising the drinking age to 21 in every state has cut down on the number of drunk driving accidents; that is, fewer people who shouldn't be drinking aren't doing so. \nWhile an even higher drinking age would significantly cut down on my problem, it won't eliminate it completely. Roughly 80 percent of high school seniors have admitted to drinking, which means it's not difficult for anyone younger than 21 to get their hands on alcohol with the right contacts. \nBut even if we ignore the statistics, my experience is an indication that drinking can be a public problem. Not only does it embarrass me in front of my visitors, but worse, it embarrasses this town and the University.\nIn an ideal world, things like prohibition and drinking laws would be nonexistent because people would practice moderation and responsibility for their own actions. This, unfortunately, isn't the case. So please, if you're going to get drunk, at least be considerate enough to take your ghastly music and atrocious singing where no one else can hear it.