To the editor:

As we enter the warm months of spring and early summer, a so-called “rite of passage” for some of our community’s youth has already begun.

A beer party that became a beer bust occurred April 17 and was listed in the sheriff’s report in last week’s paper. Ask almost any high school student, and it becomes evident that most of our local kids and a lot of their parents have heard about it by now.

As word of the “party” gets around, most folks shrug their shoulders and say something like, “Kids will be kids.”

However, as the mother of a 20-year-old son who lost his life four years ago because of alcohol use, I can’t remain silent. I also feel an added sense of outrage because the party was held on my property without my awareness. To remain silent almost implies an acceptance of this behavior and I strongly object to underage drinking in any location.

It’s against the law for anyone under the age of 21 to use alcohol.

Added to my outrage is a great sense of disappointment in the character of the kids who participated in the beer drinking. I often hear that people make poor choices, but I feel that in this case we need to use the phrase “stupid mistakes” to describe the actions of kids who know what can result from alcohol abuse.

Following the death of my son, Stephen, in 2006, I spoke in several area high schools about teenage drinking and I have tried to be open about the frustration I feel on this issue. I know that kids feel invincible during the teen years, but traffic accidents, date rape, and use of stronger drugs can result from alcohol abuse.

I write this with a heavy heart for our kids who are headed in the wrong direction. The adults who provide alcohol to minors should be severely penalized.

Country music singer Brad Paisley has a song, “Letter to Me,” in which he writes a letter to himself as a teenager. One line says, “I know at 17, it’s hard to see past Friday night.” He also sings to teens, “These are nowhere near the best years of your life.” There are so many awesome possibilities in the future; don’t exchange guilt-free and police record-free for a few hours of being the “life of the party.”

I’d like to salute local teens who choose not to drink. The peer pressure to be one of the popular crowd must be intense for many of you. Thank you for standing strong. You won’t have to live with the regrets that many of your peers are accumulating.

I also want to commend our local law enforcement officers for carrying out their duties in an atmosphere that accepts teen drinking as “inevitable.”

I am personally opposed to the use of alcohol at any age, but for now, the law about underage drinking is clear.

Let’s obey the law.

Mary Beth Bowers
Marion