thisnewday

[This was written to the online Post-Standard as a reply to someone with the screen name "Keith Stone" (as in the celebrity endorsing Keystone beer) who questioned active enforcement of laws against the sale of alcohol to minors because "underage drinking is something we all did and it didn't kill us..."]

Keith, I did some pretty stupid things while growing up. Some of them endangered only myself, while some of them might easily have involved others. But as I've gotten older, I've tried to learn from my own experiences and from the things I've seen happen in the lives of those around me.

I live one block from a family which recently saw their young son sent off to prison for driving drunk and killing his best friend. Every time I drive by that house, I think about the sadness within those walls because of the one who's not there and who now has to face the first years of what must surely be a horrible penance completely alone. The victim's family forgave him and asked that he be spared prison. Question is, will he ever forgive himself?

I know we'd like to believe that these stories are atypical, could never happen to us. But if you're in the right place at the right time, they can happen very near you. And when they do, you come to understand that catastrophic events can sometimes begin with a simple thought. Like, "Let's ditch school and get a few beers."

I'd rather not be the one who plants that thought, becomes the adult who gives permission for that chain of events to begin, in the life of some anonymous young stranger. Who might turn out to live right around the corner from me...

LPK
LiveJournal
9.28.2011