This weekend I made the long trek down I-80 to Iowa City to see the Cyclones stomp the Hawkeyes. By the way, good job guys. It was a good weekend and a good game. After the display I saw here last year at the Iowa/Iowa State game, I was expecting the people in Iowa City to run us out of town, and we would have to stay in hiding and not go out at all for fear of being killed or harassed. However, the people at the University of Iowa were nice to the people from Iowa State and just as eager to party with us as anyone else. And they sure do know how to party. Half the reason I had such a good time in Iowa City is that there is actually stuff for underage people to do – unlike Ames. The bar scene in Iowa City is huge, and it definitely lives up to its reputation. The first night we were there we attempted to go to the bars, but there were huge lines at all of them that would have taken 45 minutes or more to get in, so we decided to go the next night. Saturday night there were still long lines, but I wasn’t about to go back to Ames and say that in a whole weekend in Iowa City I didn’t get into the bars at all, so we waited. It was pretty crowded inside, but it was a good time. Much different than the atmosphere in Ames. That made me wonder why it is that Ames doesn’t have 19 bars. I have always found it strange that out of the cities which house the three major state universities, Ames is the only one where there isn’t any bars where people can get in at 19. Cedar Falls and Iowa City are obviously on to something good considering the lines I saw this weekend. And at $7 for cover for underage people (at least at the bar I was at), the money has to be rolling in at an alarming rate. Also given the fact that probably about half of the student body at any given university is under 21, it is a huge market that is just waiting to be tapped into. So if making money isn’t the issue when it comes to letting 19 and 20-year-olds into bars, it has to be the whole underage drinking issue. I don’t think the only reason underage people want to go to the bars is to drink. It’s no big secret that basically all college students drink at some point or another, and you can drink a lot cheaper and easier on your own than at a bar. I think the ultimate remedy to this problem would be to lower the drinking age to 19 or 20. But since the probability of hell freezing over is higher than the drinking age ever being lowered again, I’m willing to settle for the next best thing. The reason that 19 and 20-year-olds want to go to the bars is more that it provides an alternative to the standard weekend choices of either staying in and being bored, or go to some random party that is basically guaranteed to get busted within the first 20 minutes. Going out and dancing is a good time, even without alcohol. It is working for Iowa City and Cedar Falls, so I’m sure it would work out in Ames. People at Iowa State like to have just as good of a time as the next guy. I know 19 bars would be a hit here as well. Getting caught drinking at a bar if you are underage also carries a pretty steep penalty that most people don’t want to risk. If people are going to drink, they are going to do it before they go to the bar. Then they have no one to blame but themselves if they get in trouble. That way, if 19 bars were in Ames, bar owners wouldn’t have to worry about having underage people in their bar because they would be allowed to be there, and if people want to drink, then they will do it on their own time. I’m still not seeing the problem with this. I’m not saying that all of the bars here should go to 19 and up. Bars that only serve alcohol and have no dancing or anything else should still stay 21 and over because there is no other reason to be there besides to drink. That would make it too tempting for underage people to get drinks. It’s the bars that have dancing or live bands that should let 19 and up people in. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be all the time either. Just a day or two a week would be worth it. Something to relieve the boredom of doing the same things over and over again would be good. It’s not fair that just because you’re not 21, you can’t go out dancing or see some bands. Iowa State is a wonderful place to go to school and has a lot of things going for it. I like it better than any other place I could have gone to school except for the fact there isn’t a lot of night life here until you are 21. Get some entertainment going on here for us young people, and it could be the best.