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jianantonicWhen I got home from the nut this weekend, my mom told me that a kid from AHS died this weekend. I didn't know him, but I knew his mother and sister. Well, I was slightly more than just barely acquainted with them, anyhow. He was driving home drunk from a party, speeding, and flipped his car, and he was DOA. Tragic story, yes. I'm very sorry for his friends and family.
But.
It makes me sick that the Daily Regress calls him a role model. A model citizen, really? I'm sorry, but 17 year-olds who go out partying and then drive drunk are not model citizens. I'm sure he was a nice kid, good student, and all the good things people say about him - short of role model. It's tragic he died. But is it not also tragic that no one can say he died because he did something illegal, selfish, stupid, wrong? This kind of thing happens every day - and the people who die because of their own terrible choices are then martyred.
Oh, don't be so hard on them, now, they're just kids. We can't expect them to know any better. We can't? Okay, fine, we can't. Then don't give them cars.
Again, in no way am I trying to diminish the tragedy that is the death of this child, or any child. And I'm not saying he deserved to die because of his choices. Though his choices certainly impeded his chances for survival, and I won't be told that he didn't know that, or his friends who threw the party and let him drive away didn't know that. And I won't be told that he is a model citizen, and should I ever have children of my own (knock on wood), I will make sure that they know better than to idealize someone who dies as a result of their own bad decisions.
Oh, but you really shouldn't hold him responsible for these choices. There's so much peer pressure at that age. Okay, then will his peers be charged with murder?
It's tough for loved ones to face the reality behind this kind of death - that someone died because they were not, in fact, the perfect child you thought they were. But to call him a role model in the wake of this event is to idealize a very dangerous habit. Had he survived, but hit and killed an innocent motorist, which is really an equal possibility, would anyone EVER call him a role model again?
Yes, everyone makes bad choices. I drove like a bat out of hell when I was that age, but I was stupid to do it and no one should look up to me for it. And I don't anymore. Honestly, I think most people are lucky to survive their teenage years, because adolescents are, as a rule, idiots. Perhaps kids are given too much responsibility and freedom - or maybe it's not that, it's just that there are too many distractions that retard maturity, distractions that weren't around in the days when 14 year-olds were getting married and building their own houses and churning butter. But I digress.
Anyway, I just wanted to get this off my chest. I know it makes me look like a real asshole, but I make no apologies for the way I feel. I AM sorry this kid died. I am ALSO annoyed that his early death gives him a free pass to sainthood in the eyes of all who knew him.
To end on a happy note, I'd like to thank all my friends for making my teen years so great. Sleepovers that featured card games, oreos, and late night philosophy were the highlight of my adolescence, and I'll cherish those memories forever. And there's no reason we can't create more, because we're all still a bunch of silly kids at heart.
Peace.
But.
It makes me sick that the Daily Regress calls him a role model. A model citizen, really? I'm sorry, but 17 year-olds who go out partying and then drive drunk are not model citizens. I'm sure he was a nice kid, good student, and all the good things people say about him - short of role model. It's tragic he died. But is it not also tragic that no one can say he died because he did something illegal, selfish, stupid, wrong? This kind of thing happens every day - and the people who die because of their own terrible choices are then martyred.
Oh, don't be so hard on them, now, they're just kids. We can't expect them to know any better. We can't? Okay, fine, we can't. Then don't give them cars.
Again, in no way am I trying to diminish the tragedy that is the death of this child, or any child. And I'm not saying he deserved to die because of his choices. Though his choices certainly impeded his chances for survival, and I won't be told that he didn't know that, or his friends who threw the party and let him drive away didn't know that. And I won't be told that he is a model citizen, and should I ever have children of my own (knock on wood), I will make sure that they know better than to idealize someone who dies as a result of their own bad decisions.
Oh, but you really shouldn't hold him responsible for these choices. There's so much peer pressure at that age. Okay, then will his peers be charged with murder?
It's tough for loved ones to face the reality behind this kind of death - that someone died because they were not, in fact, the perfect child you thought they were. But to call him a role model in the wake of this event is to idealize a very dangerous habit. Had he survived, but hit and killed an innocent motorist, which is really an equal possibility, would anyone EVER call him a role model again?
Yes, everyone makes bad choices. I drove like a bat out of hell when I was that age, but I was stupid to do it and no one should look up to me for it. And I don't anymore. Honestly, I think most people are lucky to survive their teenage years, because adolescents are, as a rule, idiots. Perhaps kids are given too much responsibility and freedom - or maybe it's not that, it's just that there are too many distractions that retard maturity, distractions that weren't around in the days when 14 year-olds were getting married and building their own houses and churning butter. But I digress.
Anyway, I just wanted to get this off my chest. I know it makes me look like a real asshole, but I make no apologies for the way I feel. I AM sorry this kid died. I am ALSO annoyed that his early death gives him a free pass to sainthood in the eyes of all who knew him.
To end on a happy note, I'd like to thank all my friends for making my teen years so great. Sleepovers that featured card games, oreos, and late night philosophy were the highlight of my adolescence, and I'll cherish those memories forever. And there's no reason we can't create more, because we're all still a bunch of silly kids at heart.
Peace.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 03:39 am (UTC)But regardless, here's to friendships and silly fun.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 05:02 am (UTC)One of the guys on my F-list is the photog that we sent out to the accident that night (before anybody found out who it was). He's like "dude, i was there when they covered him with a sheet, that's just messed up"
Once we got all the rest of the details, well, let me just say it's really ironic that we're running a promo about the "all night long" safe after prom party at Albemarle next Saturday...
no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 03:37 am (UTC)I found out stuff from my brother that makes it even worse, though. So, apparently what happened is that this kid, not sure of the name, had been hosting the party while his parents were out of town. These parents had started some foundation against drunk driving where kids can call if they're drunk and stuff and get free rides and they do advocacy or something, because their daughter (i.e. the sister of the kid who hosted the party) had died a couple of years ago from driving drunk. So you'd have thought he'd be somewhat sensitive to this and not let his friends drive home drunk. Too bad.
I always say that I'm all for people getting plastered if that's a choice they want to make, but they'd damn well better stay off the roads.