We have to Talk to the KIDS...

Yep,

that's Kamryn

and

his new hat!

AND

yes, that is a line of a moustache

on the little fella at 10 years old...

What are they puttin in the food???

At Christmas he had jumped from a

kids size 4.5 in sneaks

to a men's size 8,

it is now March

and

he's sporting a size 9!

Oh goodness

what's next?

Don't blink

...

D'Vante

now 17, senior

Radford High School

and

I didn't blink

size 13 shoes

and two months til' graduation.

Kamryn's hero,

my heart,

now out there making choices,

laughing

and

hard to see past Friday night.

I've been there,

but the tempations

were not nearly what they are now.

The pressures

probably the same

but

the game was entirely different

...

We knew it all then too

remember?

We had our

"swag on" then too,

just differently.

Some were into the folk scene,

some were into the hippie scene,

some were jocks,

others

were into the greaser scene,

some were just as bad as they wanna be,

while others were loners

or hung with the in-crowd.

Some of us

were into

Motown

while others

hung at

places with a bottle of

Boones Farm

and

thought it the greatest thing

since sliced bread.

We were

all that and a bag of chips!

Others

even hung at a bar

and

then were the risk takers

and

we've heard stories of

those who drove over and around mountains

with the headlights turned off,

thrill seekers,

fun slaying kids

and

others would jump and leap from places

and stages

that no sane human would think possible.

Risk takers,

invincible

YOUTH.

Many of us have taken risks

have been those hard head kids

and have done things we later look back and wonder "how in the world did we do that, or boy that was amazing, surprised I lived through it."

But kids today

are hooked in, tuned in, technology

and

the risks are steeper than ever before.

Prescription drugs are now the craze

and

the craze is costing lives at a staggering number

every day

and

even while I type this,

someone is laying as their heart slows down

as

they take their last breath

and

they did not think it would happen.

After all, a doc prescribes medicine

and

it is safe right?

WRONG

and it is being used in ways

that it is NOT prescribed

and

kids are getting high

but not thinking

they can and will die.

But now?

The price is higher,

the risks are somehow riskier

and

the stakes?

Well the stakes are about as high as I've ever seen,

and

I am scared for the kids, the parents, the grandparents, the aunts, uncles...

Hell I'm just scared.

We have to educate,

we have to

TALK

to each other

and

to the kids

the adults

the Elders

and

to not stop.

We have to make this epidemic

of

Prescription Drugs and the ways they are being used get understood

by all who breathe.

And

we have to get folks jacked up,

and

involved

in all levels of the community.

...

I am talking about

NOW

and

the very real epidemic

that is happening in our world,

I'm hearing about it all over the country

from just about every person I meet

and

speak to.

And

I am meeting too many after they die,

by their pictures brought in the frames and shared by those who loved them now grieving them.

And with each story, I can't help but see my

Godsons, my precious Olivia

and

can't help but wonder of the tempations they face each day, the peer pressure they are under each day at their schools or with their friends.

I can't help but wonder

at what point they will enter the

experimental phases that all teens enter into.

And

I know in my heart

that they will enter into it

and

that D'Vante has already.

...

We have to be willing to tell the kids,

"I will talk to you, with you, be there for you,

will stalk you, be your living nightmare, will harrass you, will ground you, will forever be your support, Until YOU show me that you understand it and demonstrate that you know and choose wisely, I love you that much."

We have to get it ourselves

and

understand that we lay the foundation for the houses that the children will build their very houses on.

Pinellas Country in Florida

is the largest country in the state.

I spent last evening at the

elite high school known as

Palm Harbor University High School.

There I was with a woman as her guest,

she was telling her son's story and spoke to parents and their teens;

they were there not by choice

but

because their kids had been busted

for drug use.

Counselors were there,

another mother

representatives of an organization here in Florida known as

N.O.P.E.

Narcotics Overdose Prevention Education

...

It was one of the most powerful evenings I've had in a long time.

I sat in admiration as two women told their stories of pain, of grief, of hope for those in the audience.

I stared at the poster sized photos of 6 who had died of overdoses, lives now gone who had not intended to die.

Good looking all were, from 17 years old to about 28 years.

I glanced the room at the youth, one looked to be 12... males, females, parents with tears staining their cheeks.

...

I listened as a veteran of the police deptartment with 30 years in Narcotics spoke with sobering statistics.

He told the folks there,

"We don't want you to die, we want you to make choices that are good for your lives and contribute to society and be around a long time. did you know that last year well over twice as many people died from accidental prescription drug overdoses that from motor vehicle related accidents here in our country?"

...

The statistics in 2007 report that in Pinellas county the adverse effects from underage drinking cost residents 161 million dollars...

...

It was a night of power in the stories

the statistics took my breath away

the kids and the parents

were there to listen

and

God knows I pray they heard.

The choices will be theirs

but

the facts cannot be dismissed.

The choices are many,

the tempations are in the schools, on playgrounds,

in the medicine cabinets of the homes, the homes of family members, friends of friends.

70% of all medications being used on the streets and between friends at parties

come from

the homes of the kids, the grandparents, the family members, the friends homes.

CHECK YOUR MEDICINE CABINETS.

Lock up or hide your medicine.

TALK ABOUT THIS WITH YOUR KIDS.

When they go for an over night?

Know where they are going,

know the parents,

what are the rules there?

Call at 10pm

and

bring them home,

use one of those drug tests from

the store,

and

when they get home,

test them.

Keep them safe,

when kids are mixing alcohol and prescription drugs,

they do not get it... they do not plan to die,

they somehow do not believe that their  system will just shut down

and they will stop breathing.

It only takes one xanax

if the circumstance is right.

Check out

N.O.P.E

see about getting your police dept., your faith community, school to start one in your state.

I am getting passionate about this.

I hope you are too.

Remembering

Landon Korabek

one kid

who tried to party with friends

one time

who came home and had a conversation with his Dad...

A great and funny and bright kid

a great guitar player

with a future

a foundation built on love

who made a rotten choice.

Gone too soon.

We have got

to

play the music of reality

and

stop this epidemic

with

"One Love"

and

Hard love of

NOPE

Walk in Beauty

DRSES

www.sherryeshowalter.com