Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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We invite you to participate in a community discussion about our Lives Lost to Alcohol Display and the surrounding issues of Driving Under the Influence, Underage Drinking, and Substance Abuse. Your comments help us evaluate our project and to spur a passionate and open discussion of problems that affect all of us! You may leave your comments anonymously, but please leave a comment! Thank you!
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25 comments:
Young people imitate the actions modeled for them by their parents, particularly destructive behaviors. Many adults have alcohol-related issues and the behaviors of parents and other adults are complicating the elimination of this health problem for youth. The self-serving financially manipulative social messaging of the alcohol industry, portraying every event in life as alcohol-dependent, perpetuates a real health threat to teens. Like tobacco products, there is no health benefit from alcohol for a teen – only risk. Killing more teens than all other drugs combined, it must not be forgotten that alcohol is an addictive drug. The effort to prevent the destructive effects of underage drinking is a genuine public health intervention. Some believe that we should ignore what science now confirms about underage drinking – we just can’t ignore any longer what alcohol is doing to our youth. The teen drinkers today are the adult problem drinkers of tomorrow. Responsible living is not about abusing alcohol.
All I have to say is one of those silhouettes is for my best friend killed 12.9.06. I wish I could be there for the service to honor her memory.
I don't think I could say it any better than Wes did. There was a terrible accident in front of my house last week in which a man in his mid forties hit 3 trees and rolled his truck. Although I don't know if alcohol was involved the fact that it was after midnight and he had been at an eating establishment that serves alcohol chances are pretty good he had been drinking. He decided to go 80-90 miles around a curve. It wasn't like he didn't know the curve was there since he has traveled this road many times. It is a miracle he and his friend came out of it alive. He has had trouble with drugs/alcohol since his young adult life. My daughter was only about 10 minutes ahead of him coming home, which I am very thankful for.
Thank you for the education you are doing in the community
Thank you for bringing such a sad epidemic to light. I lived in Ruston for seven years and knew five people killed on that road. One was the love of my life, who died January 27, 2002. Hopefully this vigil was one of the first of many steps toward making college students aware of how important it is to make responsible decisions.
I think this is an excellent project for our communtiy. We live in a place where both high school and college students are very active in late night activities and we also live in a place where it is very easy for under age kids to obtain alcohol. This is one of many great ways to bring the realization to these students that this is a very dangerous thing. I think this vigil was great and hope it continues for years to come.
Ok, I guess I'm getting old now, so what I have to offer is retrospect. I grew up with the "local crowd" and made way too many stupid choices. Back in the wilder days we all made a lot of stupid choices. What the lives lost to alcohol does for me is causes me to look back. Like most people do as they get older, I start to think of the crowd I used to run with and play the "where are they now" game. Many have served or are serving hard time, some are in wheelchairs or paraplegic, and way too many are dead. I will never see them again, my kids will never go play at their house.... All because when we were young we thought we were invinceable. I pray that I can raise my girls to understand that life is so precious and just one bad choice can affect so many, so deeply.
I have believed in this project since it's inception. The senseless loss of life has to be addressed and this is a very powerful attempt. I also believe many lives are saved because it encourages, if not begs, students to make responsible decisions. I've spoken with many students and they get it...this isn't just a display, it represents the absence of young people who weren't finished impacting our lives. We'll never know the actual number of lives this project saves but I am convinced that it does.
Thanks to everyone who sacrificed time and energy to contribute to this worthy cause. I can't drive by this exhibit without being forced to think about the senseless death of these young people, as well as my own responsibility for tackling this problem.
The vigil is a stunning reminder of the dangers of drinking and driving.
Though I've driven by the display for the past two years, this is the first time that I've been able to attend the Candlelight Vigil that kicked off the illumination of the silouettes. It's amazing what goes through your mind as you're up close and personal with this thing. You look at those giant black nameless, faceless structures and remember that it's not just for show--each outline of a body represents an actual person that no longer walks this earth. It should literally be a sobering realization for everybody. But by the grace of God we've each escaped that end in one way or another. And while such reflection certainly makes me regret some of the decisions I may have made when young, it makes me all the more grateful for a clearness of vision today. As a friend said to me after the vigil, "I'm screwed up enough as it is, I certainly don't need alcohol or drugs to make it any worse!" So it is my deepest hope that this display and the discussion it prompts will be the catalyst for an ongoing effort to educate and inspire others to not add fuel to the fire. Life's hard enough without becoming unhinged through chemical substances of any kind. After all, it only takes a split second's poor decision or choice to alter the course of your life forever. And we want our young people think about where they want to be headed a long, long, long way down the road. After all, our future lies with them.
The Lives Lost To Alcohol display always reminds me of the lives unnecessarily shortened because of alcohol . . . and I mourn again for one of my very best friends who lost her precious, wonderful son that way.
I would like the younger generation to visualize and realize, each siloutte has a name on it. The names are not written, but each represents a young life lost to alcohol. At one time, these young men and women lived life, enjoyed life, made daily decisions just like you and I. They no longer have the priviledge or choices we take for granted on a daily basis. Drinking and driving kills. Death is final. There is no second chance. We all are human. We all think it will not happen to us. It does, it happens to you, me, our friends and our families. Be responsible, take responsiblity for those who will not. Please, don't let your siloutte be the next one added.
I think this is a tremendous project. While we think of this as a way to educate our high school and college age students, the silhouettes opened a discussion with my 1st grader and 4th grader about the dangers of using alcohol and other drugs. It was especially eye-opening to them to realize that one of the silhouettes represents the father of one of their friends. That may well be a stronger lesson to realize that someone close to their age doesn't have a parent because of an unwise decision he made than anything else we could say. Although I was unable to help this year, I know the hard work that goes into setting up this display, and I appreciate all those who saw the value and necessity of being a part of that.
This was the first time I have attended the vigil for the Lives Lost to Alcohol. I was heartbroken for the mother who bravely shared her message of grief to encourage everyone to be responsible enough to never drink and drive or let anyone else. I do think that our community has a problem with underage drinking and we need to do all we can to confront it and offer positive leadership to other alternatives. The silhouettes are the best visual to remind us that this is not just statistics or numbers but friends, sons and daughters.
I am one of those who have been affected by the loss of someone to an alcohol accident. Unfortunately for my friend, his life was lost as a result of someone else choice. He isn't represented in our silhouettes because he lived outside of Lincoln Parish but the silhouettes represent an ugly reality for many of us. We know the grief of bad choices and lives ending way too early.
Thank you for this display. It sends a clear message to our community and to those passing by on Interstate 20 - choosing to drink and drive is costly - and too often the cost is life.
For those of you who have participated by volunteering - thank you! You are making a difference in our community. Please continue to be involved. Your involvement does produce change.
Again, thanks! This project is worth it.
I'm so proud of the people of Ruston who finally decided to stand up and acknowledge that we have too many teen deaths as a result of drinking and driving! My son died in 1997, three weeks before his 18th birthday. He had been to an establishment owned by Rabb and was served alcohol. It was something that no one in this town wanted to talk about. We need to educate teens but we also need law enforcement to control the bars who serve minors.
I am the mother of one of those children represented by the silhouettes. I could not attend the vigil because of the pain and the reminder of our families loss. It has been two years and I still can not talk about the pain that I feel everyday for the loss of a wonderful young man, who made a terrible choice. I only pray that other parents do not have to go through this hurt. Each of the silhouettes represents someones child, brother, sister, or loved one. A life cut short by a bad choice can be prevented through the education and realization that it could happen to you
I can remember that my husband and I were supposed to be right behind one those wrecks on that service road but we decided to go home. Till this day I don't understand why teens, young college students, and adults think that they are invincible when they drink and drive. Having a child in the car with me I am more aware of the people driving around me. I have lived those fun days at the bars and I think back and realized how stupid I was. I just hope through education and this project that many lives will be touched and there will be a changed in Lincoln Parish. My husband has lost two of his high school friends in the past five years due to alcohol. I pray that things will change in this community.
What can be said that hasn't already been posted. I remember being a teen and a young adult and thinking we were invincible, that nothing would ever happen to us. We were from a small town from another parish. There was not much to do. We made alot of stupid choices, drinking and driving on occasion.
I was a sophomore in High School…16 years old… I thought I was grown and knew everything about life that I needed to. My best friend at the time was having her own problems in life. She and her boyfriend were off and on she was afraid that she was expecting. She had a problem with drugs and alcohol. I knew this. She respected me enough to never do the drugs around me and never offered me any. She was going to school in another town and was only home on the weekends and during the summer. We kept in touch via phone and mail. She had some problems, but I wanted to be there for her. I wanted to try to help her clean her life up.
However, we were both teenagers who liked to party as well. This night we had both been drinking. I did not have much… one pint of screwdriver I think… She, on the other hand, had been drinking all night. I don’t know what drove her to drink so much. Anyway, we were driving around looking for her boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend. He had found out about the baby and was not taking it well.
At this time, there was a large pond behind the old Wal-Mart in our town. The road that went beside Wal-Mart had a very sharp curve in it. Once past the store, there was a small subdivision and a large pond and an undeveloped area where some of the kids liked to hang out. We drove back there to see if he or any of our friends were there. Since no one was there, we left and decided to head home.
I did not feel bad. I had eaten a pizza with my drink and that was over an hour prior. I think my friend was pretty drunk. I don’t remember what all we were talking about. Well, we were driving out and when we hit the curve, I lost control…
I guess I was going a little too fast; I ended up upside down in the ditch facing the direction I was coming from. (I rolled my car, but only once.) Neither on of us had been wearing a seatbelt. I hit my head on the roof of the car and my ear on the rearview mirror. My friend's arm was outside of the passenger window when it rolled and it was messed up some (the windows were down). We were both able to get out of the car and once we got our bearings, we had to walk quite a way to find a phone to call for help. At that point, my back started to cramp up real bad. We were at the super market next to the Wal-Mart and I remember someone making me lay down. I heard my friend crying and saying, “please don’t die!” All I could think about was that my father was going to kill me. I didn’t think that the crash was alcohol related, but I knew he would find out that I had been drinking, and that she had been also.
I had to ride in the ambulance to the E.R. Everything checked out. She went as well. They gave us muscle relaxers and sent us home.
She went back to school. We didn’t see too much of each other after that. We wrote and called each other, but we grew apart for some reason. I never did figure it out. She did write one day and told me that the night of the wreck, she had a miscarriage, all of the drugs that they gave her or something… I can’t remember. She said that she started cramping and bleeding real bad and lost the baby. She said something to the point that it was hard to think that a part of she and Brian just passed right through her…
She was not ready for the baby. Things worked out for the best. However, it was really sad. I have not seen her nor heard from her in many years. I wish her the best in life and I am so sorry for the pain that I caused her that night. I don’t know if I should or not, but I feel so guilty about the loss of life in that accident...
(It very well could have been my friend's drug use; however, coincidentally she miscarried the night of our crash. That baby will never have a chance at life.)
I don't know if alcohol played any part in that crash. However, I had been drinking early in the evening and it wasn't the first time that I had had a drink or two and gotten behind the wheel. A life ended that night. I will never know if it was my fault or not. It put a screeching halt, so to say, to me ever drinking and driving again.
I am in my 30's now and have always been so much more careful. I pray that my children will never drink and drive. I hope that I can guide them and others by my mistakes.
As others have said, each of those silhouettes represents a life. A living, breathing soul who walked and talked. Each was a precious life taken too early...tragically cut short. I wholeheartedly believe in educating our young people and applaud the Coalition's efforts!
The display is very powerful and brought tears to my eyes as I realized that my precious son was represented by one of those dark young men, even though he was not from Lincoln Parish, and even though he was a victim, not the one responsible for his death. As a result of my tremendous tragedy, I have attempted to do something positive and now work with teens all over LA to make them aware of the dangers of alcohol. The message I get from most of them is that they are invincible and bullet proof and it will never happen to me. I am very proud of the work LA Tech is doing along with some of the RHS students to change these attitudes in our state. Keep up the good work. I know you are saving lives every day. God Bless you.
What a stirring reminder these silhouettes are each time I drive past. Remembering what my friends & I did in high school, college, and after college gives me even more reason to pass along the lessons to my children. Then to have one of my college students come back to class a week after flipping his truck and totaling it when he was at home for the weekend. I made sure he was ok before asking him if he had been drinking. When he told me not much, I just looked at him and said, "you're lucky." He said he knew and never planned on doing that again. I hope that just sticks with him, but I hope that lesson does not have to be learned by all the hard way. These silhouettes are a great way for us to remember those lost and also pass the lesson forward to our youth.
Thanks for the coalition and all those that volunteered their time as part of this project. The coalition is making a difference in this community, even when some people still deny that there is an underage drinking issue in Ruston and Lincoln Parish.
The silhouettes send out a powerful message. I thank the coalition for this project. I wish every youth who was thinking about drinking and driving could read the comments posted-- these are very powerful messages. Thank you for sharing comments and personal stores.
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