For MADD, the Legal Drinking Age Is Not Up for Debate

Statistics can tell you a lot, but statistics do not grieve. That was the power of a group of activists who emerged in the early 1980s. They called themselves Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and they described what numbers alone could not.

MADD's members cried before judges, legislators, and television cameras. They publicized the pain of losing sons and daughters in alcohol-related traffic accidents.

They even persuaded President Ronald Reagan to back the federal legislation

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