State and local officials around Kansas are concerned about our kids boozing.
Sadly, many of the adults they look to as examples aren’t so picky.
They turn on the tube or go to the movies or just walk around their home community and learn over and over again that the way to have a good time is to get plastered.
Part of the society may give lip service to sobriety, but it isn’t working, as the statistics show, according to a state agency.
A recent Associated Press story noted: “A new report says teenagers in southwest Kansas’ Finney County are slightly more likely to participate in binge drinking than other Kansas teens.
“The 2010 Kansas Kids Count Data show that about 17 percent of Finney County’s sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders reported having five or more consecutive drinks on at least one occasion. That compared with about 15 percent in comparable Kansas counties, and about 14 percent in the state as a whole.”
It could be that the best way to insure our kids aren’t binge drinking would be for adults to set better examples.
Sure, that is drastic, suggesting that adults should discipline themselves to act in a way that our youths can follow.
If that is too severe, then just stop getting so worked up about teens and younger kids drinking. After all, we keep showing them it’s OK.
— Chuck Smith