A Bowling Alley? Not Again!

A Bowling Alley? Not Again!

By DAVID THEUS
Publisher

Why is it every time some one in this county is posed with the question of helping the youth of this county to stay on the straight and narrow, the answer is always the same. We need a bowling alley, a skating rink, and a theater. Every time I hear the notion of a bowling alley my skin begins to crawl. Someone please tell me the last time they were present at a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new bowling alley?

Our latest entrant to the Baker County Sheriff’s race is advocating that he would "use his political pull to persuade our county commission to do more for teens around here." A bowling alley would be nice, or a skating rink or movie theater. We don’t want our youth to be heading down the wrong road. We can guide them a lot better," Tim Smith is quoted saying in a recent article.

How about using your political pull to encourage the county commission to spend more money on our school system instead? Every time the school board is faced with setting their budget and asked for their two cents for funding from the county, why don’t we get generous and start spending more on our schools so they can afford new text books for the kids to take home and use for starters.

How about the parents of these kids start encouraging our youth to attend and finish college, so when they are done with high school, they are not stuck here in Baker County loitering from one parking lot to the next, or looking for some distant dirt road to travel all night long where the likelihood of them being discovered drinking and discarding their empties is minimal.

A good education is the secret to fewer crimes and adolescent antics. A young man or woman with an education adds to our community and tax base, he or she, with a job becomes a contributing citizen, not a burden to the system. A higher bowling score or the ability to skate backwards does not. That’s just one more oversized parking lot for them to loiter and drink in. This is 2008 not 1978.