A Minor Concern

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Many people who write articles are absolutely desperate for attention. Hence, I've written this and have posted it.

Some gentleman wrote an article about a short--and I mean barely-enough-words-to-warrant-a-comma short--conversation Paul McCartney had with John Lennon about one of their songs. The article was baited with the prospect of unsavory lyrics written by Paul McCartney for one of their songs regarding a 17 year-old girl. The article was titled with the buzzword 'Pedophile' for this very reason, and I'm ashamed to say that it obviously worked for me, because it would be very alarming to learn that the primary songwriters of a band who has had such an impact on the music industry in the US were actually singing about a 17 year-old girl when they say the words, "She was just 17." Scandalous.

(ATTENTION: The rest of this post has nothing to do with pedophilia, so drop it.)

This got me to thinking about how strange it is that the legal system is written so that we can legally assume a person is ready to be an adult the moment they go from being 17 to 18 years-old. Maybe, back when this became a law, a consultant to the federal justice system learned something about the stroke of midnight on a 17 year-old's birthday that we don't know. I, myself, would assume a 16 year-old should be expected to live up to the standards of an adult the moment they willingly step into a car with the intention of hurtling it to and fro at deadly speeds in populated areas. But, that's just me.

If we're going to be honest, we shouln't use the term 'legal age.' We should use the more accurate term 'not our problem anymore age'. Using the word 'legal' is such a cop-out. It just takes the place of, "We decided that, if you're not acting like a person in a reasonable way by this point, we no longer have to ask your parents before we get mad at you screwing everyone over.'

That's the very reason children need to be held accountable. It has to start at that age. I'm not claiming to be a perfect, or even fully accountable, adult, but I at least have a conscience enough to try the best I can to live up to what I'm able to do. That's all because I grew up with good parents who were present enough to call me on my crap, and caring enough to still love me afterward.

And, I lied, here's one more thing concerning pedophilia: I have yet to hear anyone complain about Joan Jett's song where she literally sings about seducing a 17 year-old boy. There might be a double-standard there, but what do I know. Just saying.

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