Mar 31, 2017 3 min read

Editorial voices from newspapers around the United States:

Secretary of Energy and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry decided to rain on the parade of a student election.

When Texas A&M recently named a new student body president, Perry questioned the legitimacy of the process.

Bobby Brooks won the seat after original winner Robert McIntosh was disqualified for an expense report violation. A student judicial court ruled in the case and found McIntosh guilty.

Due process was served, but Perry, an A&M alumnus, decided to offer his 2 cents.

“It is difficult to escape the perception that this quest for ‘diversity’ is the real reason the election outcome was overturned. Does the principle of ‘diversity’ override and supersede all other values of our Aggie Honor Code?” Perry wrote in a Houston Chronicle op-ed.

His question might sound reasonable, but his words open some worrisome doors.

The election made Brooks the first openly gay student president of A&M. Perry’s quip about the “quest of ‘diversity'” belittled that event unnecessarily.

Government officials butting in on local affairs isn’t new, or even surprising, but it can do damage.

A disturbing trend has emerged: Teenagers or young adults achieve something striking and progressive, like an openly gay student body president or an inclusive prayer room at school, but then a public official finds ways to tear it down.

By attacking young people’s attempts at living in the modern age, public officials are unintentionally creating a divisive and potentially toxic environment for our future.

Good news and bad news flowed directly out of Columbus last week about the war on opiate abuse and its destructive and anguishing impact on children and families.

The good news is that Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has launched a promising multimillion-dollar program to identify, assist and treat families devastated by the grip of heroin, fentanyl and other painkiller opiates.

The bad news is that the Mahoning Valley and other areas of the state will not enjoy one drop of the potential rewards of that initiative because the two-year project will be isolated to 14 southern Ohio counties. The silent and invisible victims of the opiate epidemic in the rest of the state sadly will be left behind.

DeWine unveiled the pilot program titled START. The $3.5 million intervention program will provide specialized victim services to children who have suffered harm due to parental drug abuse. The program also will provide drug treatment for parents.

Legislation proposed in the Illinois General Assembly would allow people who are 18 years old, but not yet 21, to consume wine or beer in restaurants if they are accompanied by a parent or guardian.

With due respect for parental rights, this is a bad idea and lawmakers should reject it.

Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984, setting the legal age for consumption of alcohol at 21 years.

In the years leading up to that law, states had a patchwork of legal drinking ages. According to 49 studies, the states with lower drinking ages saw double-digit increases in alcohol-related traffic crashes. After the minimum drinking age was set at 21, there was a 16 percent decline in alcohol-related crashes. One national study indicated that by raising the minimum age to 21, about 900 highway deaths were prevented each year.

A few underage individuals might be disappointed if they can’t lift a toast at a restaurant with their parents. Disappointment is not fatal.

The drinking age of 21 should stand.