Youth Drinking Not a Crime

To the editors:

Angela Miklavcic's concern for underage drinking in finals club (Opinion, Nov.24) is typical puritan vitriol. She attacks the AD for serving alcohol to her 16-year old friend, claiming that "Harvard students should have better judgement any day, drunk or sober, than 16-year-olds do."

If Miklavcic is indeed a Harvard student with better judgement than her 16-year-old friend, then perhaps Miklavcic too is to be faulted for not having the foresight to handcuff herself to her errant ward. However, it is clear that the 16-year-old in this case is the one with the better judgement.

The teenager should be awarded sheafs of Rimbaud for daring to transgress Miklavcic's and, I might add, the United States' repressive legislation by tasting the Dionysian delight that the ancients dared not withhold from their young. The herd instinct of this puritan university would have us agree with Miklavcic's judgements though most of us secretly empathize with the 16-year-old.

It must be said openly that the "best of life is but intoxication" (Byron). The 16-year-olds of this country should have no shame in breaking the law in order to partake of the sweet irrationality allowed their 16-year-old brothers and sisters in Spain. SAADI SOUDAVAR '00   Nov. 24, 1998