Well, it just mystifies me how some people can be soo...dumb. I guess I should start by telling you that I'm a big fan of the movie Newsies and was on an e-mail list about it for a while. I unsubscribed from it with new friends, namely a girl named Curls. She was funny, hyper, silly, yet serious and thoughtful when it came to other people. She never would've hurt anyone intentionally, and she was the first to recognize me on the list. I found out that she also unsubcribed from the list just a bit after me. Everyone lost touch with her. That news by itself wasn't all that bad. Later, though, her twin brother posted a message to the list stating that she had been hit and killed by a drunk driver while walking home from her swing dancing class. She didn't even live long enough to see 16. After she was hit, she was in a coma for five days. On the fifth day, she woke up long enough to tell her family that she loved them. Then, she died. I'm 16 years old, and this is my first experience with a death of a person close to my heart. I cry for the fact that she didn't deserve anything. She wasn't even old enough to drive on her own yet! She'd just gotten her learners' permit!! It's bad enough for a person to be hit by a drunk driver on the road. It's a completely different thing when a person is goofing off on a football field on the way home from a dance class. My heart goes out to Janie "Curls" Nelson, her family, and anyone else who has ever experienced a loss due to a drunk driver. It just makes me so angry to know that someone would be stupid enough to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking. Do they not realize the damage they can, and probably will, cause? Do their friends not understand that it isn't right to let them drive in that case? Why do these things have to happen to people who are still so full of life? I don't think we can change the world, though I wish we could, but I do believe that each and every person that reads this has the obligation to do everything in their power to prevent their friends from drinking and driving. I don't care about teen-age drinking, or drinking in general. Just, please, if you make the decision to drink, be responsible enough to not drive. Stay at a friend's house or find a sober driver. Call your parents for God's sake if you're still at the age you can do that! All I'm asking is that you use the judgement each and every one of you has to help make sure a senseless accident like this never happens again.

Thank you,
Ashley