|
Readers Talk about How to Stop Underage Drinking
Several readers asked about how to contact the CT Coalition to Stop
Underage Drinking. Here is the contact information:
Connecticut Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking
30 Arbor Street
Hartford, CT 06106
Phone: 800-422-5422, ext. 14
Fax: 860-236-9412
www.preventionworksct.org
Dear Beth:
I believe the greatest impact to underage drinking needs to come from
two places.
- The Home
- Do your children or their friends have false ID's?
Guess what they're doing something with them! Do you know that minors can get false ID's off the Internet?
Well, the kids know - so monitor your child's Internet use.
- Hold young persons responsible for their actions. If your son or
daughter comes home drunk and you find beer bottles in the car, take away driving privileges for a while.
- Are any of their friends over 21? Be sure you know who your children are
with. Talk with friends over 21 about consequences if you discover your kids are getting alcohol from them. As parents, we know more than we let
on. After all, we were minors once, too.
- Laws and Enforcement of Laws
- Pass strict laws and enforce the penalties, such as fines and
community service by minors who drink, as well as by the merchants who sell liquor to them.
The problem needs to be stopped where it starts: with the minor. Don't
feel sorry for them (minors). They are the ones breaking the law and
they know it. When they do, they should have to pay the price, just like
they will when they are adults.
***
Dear Beth:
My first concern is that young people aren't being adequately taught the
difference between right and wrong. What sort of truth is being taught?
Where is the yardstick for morality? If ethics continue to be taught as
situational, then by definition there is only confusion. The basis
shifts with the wind. With no fixed basis for concepts of right and
wrong, much less the very existence of these concepts, bright young
people quickly realize what they are being taught is meaningless.
Secondly, secular and government schools have eliminated God from their
environs. What can we expect when religion is forbidden?
People are taught the proposition that all of reality is accidental. If
we are nothing more than a collection of chemical reactions, then even
the words I am using have no meaning. We become captives of our own vain philosophy.
***
Dear Beth:
I'm going to tell you what I would like to do, even though I know I
can't do it. As a father of four children I have been around the block a
few times and know some of the problems of raising teenagers. Today in
our fine city we have a big drug problem. This problem effects many a
fine family.
You can raise your children in a good way by keeping them busy in
scouts, church and sports. Talk to them about alcohol and drugs and what
it will do to them. However, many young people still turn to drugs. The
bad thing is that it's just not beer or pot anymore; it's crack and
heroin.
What I would like to do is put an ad in the paper telling all the
dealers: "If you sell drugs to one of my grandchildren, I will hunt you
down and blow your head off." However, a statement like that would put
me in jail, and most of the dealers don't read the paper anyway. So it
wouldn't do any good.
I'm sure many of the dads and granddads out there feel the same way I
do, but in their hearts they know this would be breaking the law. A good
person doesn't break the law. I just hate to see the young people of our
fine town harming themselves and their loved ones.
It's time for people to stop turning their heads away from these
problems and help the police stop the dealers who are selling "death" to
our teenagers. If a parent finds alcohol or drugs in their child's room
or book bag, confront the child and find out where he or she got it.
Then inform the police. I don't want my grandchildren living in a town
with alcohol and drug problems, but I think this problem exists in all
towns. Let's drive the dealers out and put them in jail!
***
LINKS:
***
Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.
Previous columns are available.
| 
