The Boston Globe Flunks the Maturity Test

There was a editorial in the Boston Globe not long ago that spoke favorably of raising the age that youths can be charged with crimes as an adult from 18 to 19 years of age based on assertion that 18 year olds lacked the maturity to be charged as an adult. In Massachusetts our legislators on Beacon Hill supported prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to those under age 21 which was also supported by the Boston Globe presumably on the grounds that those under the age of 21 lack the maturity or knowledge to understand the danger that cigarettes present to their health. However, more recently the Boston Globe editorialized support for allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote in municipal elections in order to increase voting participation.

Youths cannot buy alcohol until age 21 and should not be charged as an adult for crimes until they are 19 years old because they lack maturity. But in the Globe in its infinite wisdom has decided that we should trust 16 and 17-year olds to make the vital decisions on who should be elected to local government where important decisions are made that affect our everyday lives despite their immaturity and lack of practical life experience. Special interest groups will seize at the opportunity to further influence our inexperienced young people with a one sided perspective to influence their votes to secure their future political power especially when it comes to Proposition 2 ½ overrides. It’s easy to convince a 16 or 17-year old who has never had to work to pay taxes that more spending something is needed to carry out some allegedly worthwhile unmet need. Remember locally is where your property taxes are raised and where our school and municipal budgets are set and appropriated. Is it really sensible to think that students as young as 16 or 17 who are easily influenced should be making these life changing decisions?

Many far left progressives within the Massachusetts Legislature including Senator Jason Lewis and Representative Michael Day are also supporting a bill known as the ROE Act that among other things removes parental notification for a child (12 and up) who is seeking an abortion. Yet, in many school settings a child cannot be administered an aspirin without parental consent. Does this sound hypocritical to you, that’s because it is. Obtaining an abortion is much more serious than taking an aspirin, but it’s whatever fits the “progressive” agenda that finds its way out of our very liberal legislature regardless of it lack in meeting common-sense standards.

If 16 – 20-year olds are too immature to buy alcohol and 18-year olds are too immature to be charged as adults for crimes according to the Globe, then logically neither should they be allowed to vote in elections which decide serious public policy decisions. The pervasive influence of the Boston Globe is responsible for much of the wrong-headed ideas that find their way into Massachusetts law. Let’s hope that this latest scheme from the Globe editorial board does not find its way into law.

The views in this column are my own. I can be reached at (781)438-5720 or by email at ContactCarolineforinfo@gmail.com Caroline Colarusso is the Republican State Committeewoman for the 5^th Middlesex District (Stoneham, Melrose, Malden, Winchester 1,2,3,8, Reading and Wakefield)