radiowaves
01-07-2010, 02:35 PM
I have wanted to make this statement for years but have avoided it. I start with the comment, yes I have drank alcohol and still will have a beer with friends on a rare occasion. But events over the years have hit me in the forehead and it is time to say it.
To all area young people, please listen. You are truly in the best time of your life, playing sports, cheerleading, poms and dance, band, drama, speech contest etc....I know we are in a world of over 50% of the population coming from single parent families. I know drugs and alcohol are everywhere around you. But I encourage, no, I beg you, to resist the tempatations and find friends and things that will protect you and keep you alive. A young man was just sentenced to prison time for hitting another vehicle with his and killing two young people. It was 2 AM on a weekend. I do not need to think real hard to realize when a group of under 20 year old kids are on the roads, they probably have left a party! And someone driving in their personal vehicle is not working, they very well have been drinking. So lets not cover it with fluff, as my grandfather said to me, "nothing good happens after midnight!" Especially on the roads.
I remember the call well. 2 o'clock in the morning in 1973. A state trooper was telling me ( then a junior in high school) to get my parents on the phone. My brother, 10 years my senior, had been critically hurt in a car accident. He and the driver had been drinking and left the road going some 120 mph. He had come out of the car while it was still moving in the 80's and the driver was thrown out, run over and killed. The six months of rehab, I watched as my brother was spared, taught me way too much. And he was the lucky one. Speed and booze left my pattern through high school and in to college.Getting drunk and driving destroys lives and families. So do not make the bad choice.
Get caught and lose your chance to play your favorite sport. Let your team mates down, with your abscense. Be embarressed, lose something you can never get back. And that is if you live through it. Die and understand the things that happen to a family. It is not a game, and most times you will not get another chance. My brother was lucky, he lived with two broken arms, a broken leg in two places, a shoulder and collar bone crushed, 10 surgeries, plates, pins and screws in his body, a 14 inch stainless steel rod in his leg. Six months of life lost for ever, while his family lived through hell, praying and hoping for his recovery. Plus the knowledge the guy he was with, was DEAD! Parents, fans, players young folks, take note. If you make bad decisions and it goes farther, you might kill someone else, young folks binge drink and sometimes die. Others are in control of you when you are impaired, many other things come from this.
And lastly, when are we going to procecute those who help our young people get their drinks and drugs. I hope each of us will put extra pressure on our law enforecment and legal system to put these folks in jail and make examples of them. Call me old fashion, call me a prude, but each of us knows 2-3 young people who have died from being drunk of who have killed others. I want to enjoy my family. Please do not kill them because you make bad decisions. Next time you walk by a little child with his or her mom, visualize that you just killed them with your car, drunk on the road after having fun!!! with your friends. You will never be able to forget it.
Happy New Year in 2010. Make it safe for all.
To all area young people, please listen. You are truly in the best time of your life, playing sports, cheerleading, poms and dance, band, drama, speech contest etc....I know we are in a world of over 50% of the population coming from single parent families. I know drugs and alcohol are everywhere around you. But I encourage, no, I beg you, to resist the tempatations and find friends and things that will protect you and keep you alive. A young man was just sentenced to prison time for hitting another vehicle with his and killing two young people. It was 2 AM on a weekend. I do not need to think real hard to realize when a group of under 20 year old kids are on the roads, they probably have left a party! And someone driving in their personal vehicle is not working, they very well have been drinking. So lets not cover it with fluff, as my grandfather said to me, "nothing good happens after midnight!" Especially on the roads.
I remember the call well. 2 o'clock in the morning in 1973. A state trooper was telling me ( then a junior in high school) to get my parents on the phone. My brother, 10 years my senior, had been critically hurt in a car accident. He and the driver had been drinking and left the road going some 120 mph. He had come out of the car while it was still moving in the 80's and the driver was thrown out, run over and killed. The six months of rehab, I watched as my brother was spared, taught me way too much. And he was the lucky one. Speed and booze left my pattern through high school and in to college.Getting drunk and driving destroys lives and families. So do not make the bad choice.
Get caught and lose your chance to play your favorite sport. Let your team mates down, with your abscense. Be embarressed, lose something you can never get back. And that is if you live through it. Die and understand the things that happen to a family. It is not a game, and most times you will not get another chance. My brother was lucky, he lived with two broken arms, a broken leg in two places, a shoulder and collar bone crushed, 10 surgeries, plates, pins and screws in his body, a 14 inch stainless steel rod in his leg. Six months of life lost for ever, while his family lived through hell, praying and hoping for his recovery. Plus the knowledge the guy he was with, was DEAD! Parents, fans, players young folks, take note. If you make bad decisions and it goes farther, you might kill someone else, young folks binge drink and sometimes die. Others are in control of you when you are impaired, many other things come from this.
And lastly, when are we going to procecute those who help our young people get their drinks and drugs. I hope each of us will put extra pressure on our law enforecment and legal system to put these folks in jail and make examples of them. Call me old fashion, call me a prude, but each of us knows 2-3 young people who have died from being drunk of who have killed others. I want to enjoy my family. Please do not kill them because you make bad decisions. Next time you walk by a little child with his or her mom, visualize that you just killed them with your car, drunk on the road after having fun!!! with your friends. You will never be able to forget it.
Happy New Year in 2010. Make it safe for all.