Old enough to vote, old enough to smoke

I applaud the students at Stevenson High School who want to get more involved politically. Yet I must admit I am disturbed by the fact that our government is encouraging and permitting voting by certain 17-year-olds to vote in state primaries yet governments throughout the country are trying to raise the age for smoking to 21.

Essentially our governments are saying that our young people are smart enough to vote for the right candidates but too immature or stupid to know whether they should smoke or not.

Smoking is well known to be detrimental to one's health, yet people smoke because they see benefits that to them outweigh the risks. Politics is much the same. Candidates promise all kinds of benefits to their constituents, but it often takes a little work to find out the full costs and risks of what they are offering.

So these same people who can't be trusted to make sound judgments when the risks and costs are well known can be fully trusted to make decisions where the risks and costs often require real homework to find out.

Similarly, it is easy for someone who doesn't pay taxes to vote for a political candidate who will tax other people to pay for benefits which he will receive. I have no doubt that this is behind many of the government drives to increase voter turnout.

Larry Craig

Wilmette