Sixteen-year-olds ask tough questions...

Last week my 16-year-old son and I were talking about my exploits as a teenager. My son said, “Dad, things were so less uptight when you were a kid. What happened?” My initial response to him was: “Ronald Reagan.”

Since then, I have given this a lot of thought. And while I do stand by my original answer of Ronald Reagan, there is actually so much more to it.

The reason I start with Reagan is because while he was president, the legal drinking age was raised from 18 to 21. It’s a move that I have disagreed with since I was 17, when the drinking age changed. Eighteen-year-olds can serve in the military, can vote, can marry, can enter contracts, and they can go to prison—but they can’t have a beer. If you are old enough to fight and die for your country, you are damn well old enough to have a goddamn beer.

Reagan also ignored AIDS. Not only was it ignored, but it became such a stigma that it changed the way Americans viewed sex. The sexual revolution that started in the 1960s came to a screeching halt in the 1980s, and conservative Christians were more than giddy about using the AIDS crisis as a bludgeon while touting the decay of American society.

Then there was Jessica McClure. It was October 1987 when the 18-month-old girl fell into a well. What would have been a local news story for the Midland, Texas, area (and may have made the wire services prior to CNN) became international news. For the next two days her story was broadcast continuously across the world and set the stage for the 24/7 news cycle we know today. Prior to this event, a local news story (like a baby falling in a well) stayed local. Today, every missing child, every domestic dispute, and any controversial “news” item becomes fodder for the 24/7 news cycle. Want to know why you won’t let your kids go to movies by themselves? It isn’t because the world is a more dangerous place—it is because how we perceive the world has changed.

And the evolution of uptightness certainly didn’t end with Reagan.