An Appropo Visit

We had a family visit our school today to tell the story of their son who died of alcohol poisoning. He had just graduated from high school and had moved into an apartment with two other friends. They partied, he died. Our student population was very quiet during this presentation. A young man in the community committed suicide last week, so many of our students were raw from emotion. In the past year and a half, two students have been killed in car accidents related to alcohol and two mothers who work at the school have lost one of their twenty-some year old children to alcohol related accidents. We have 160 students in the school. Since I have been gone from my last school, two young men whom I had worked with have died of alcohol related automobile accidents. That school had about 60 students in the high school.

The dad of the young man who died of alcohol poisoning is walking from Arizona to Montana to spread his ashes in Montana, the land that he loved. What a committment to his son! He is telling the story wherever he can. As I write, he is telling his tragic story to this community. His story spans the divide between the Native American and the Caucasian. His pain is palatable and real. His is a story of the killing power of alcohol.