Letters to the Editor

Police reports should give parents needed wake-up call

I decided to write this letter after I read your article on Sept. 10 about all the young people in the area being arrested for various drinking offenses, including a young person "sitting in the driveway, vomiting," and another arrested for driving while intoxicated.

I think that a lot of these kids are not being adequately supervised by their parents.

Another problem that is probably not so obvious that might be contributing to the delinquency of these youths is the fact that a lot of them are listening to so-called "gangsta rap" on a "very popular" local radio station.

I was listening to this call-in show the other night and was horrified to hear children, some of whom can't have been older than 10, call up and request songs such as "Gin and Juice" and "Hits from the Bong." These songs are not about simple fun.

They embrace a whole lifestyle of driving around, getting drunk, using drugs, smacking around women and carrying a "strap" (gun).

I know most of the parents reading this right now are thinking "What's the harm? They're just kids being kids."

I am living proof that it's not all fun and games. I am currently serving a four-year sentence at Wildwood Correctional Center for felony driving while intoxicated, and I also was a "stone-cold gangsta." I wish I could take back all the times I was driving around, "chillin," smokin' weed, ... so drunk that I don't remember how I got home.

Parents, talk to your children, find out what they're up to, before they're found sitting in the driveway, vomiting, or worse, charged with killing someone while driving drunk.

Robert A. Scott

Wildwood Correctional Center

Kenai