Press Releases
Letter to the Editor

June 9, 2003

What will it take for the citizens of Wyoming to wake up? How many more of our young people have to die before we acknowledge that our attitudes concerning drinking are killing us? Our young people are told through the actions of the adults around them that drinking is a sign of adulthood. That the ability to drink large amounts of alcohol means that you are truly as adult. Tonight once again there was a report of a young man 15 years old dying of alcohol poisoning. That is just one more incident with tragic results. The sheriffs office in Campbell county is being investigated concerning the traditional “Senior Party” that is held every year as a way to celebrate some sort of right of passage through getting as drunk as you can and seeing if you can beat the odds and survive until graduation. A 16-year-old Newcastle girl was killed when an adult charged with her care got into a fire truck drunk and went to respond to a fire.

Since my son and his teammates died on September 16, 2001 how many others have died in this same useless way. How many will die in the following months and years from these totally preventable tragedies. Those of you who have been through this terrible loss know how helpless you feel and how devastating this kind of senseless behavior is. We, as the adult population of this state, need to rethink the kind of values we are teaching our children. No one needs to die from the use of alcohol. It is never safe for underage people to drink. It is harmful to their bodies and their brains. It destroys whatever judgment they have. It is impossible for teenagers to drink responsibly. They have a very hard time learning responsibility when they are sober. Alcohol arrests their emotional development. It damages their futures. Is this the kind of future we want for them. Too many of us in this state are living with consequences of others bad judgment concerning the use of alcohol. Good parents tell their children that underage drinking is unacceptable behavior. The old idea that they will drink anyway has to go. It is time for the parents of this state to start to send a strong message to the young people of Wyoming about underage drinking. It is time that we stop tolerating those who drink and drive. The judges that slap the hands of repeat offenders need to be called to task. The legislators who worry more about the consequences to the drunk driver than the victims of these offenses need to be more concerned about the price that the rest of society pays when this type of behavior is ignored.

I am extremely angry that we, as adults in Wyoming, seem to be willing to let this type of irresponsible behavior continue. It is time to stop making excuses, stop blaming the victims, stop letting our attitudes contribute to the unnecessary deaths of our citizens. We are losing our future along with these attitudes. It is time for it to stop.

Debbie McLeland

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