DRUGS WILL FILL VOID OF ABSENT PARENTS

I've thought about who I am, and the choices I made to end up here. Most of
my choices were decided by drugs. I think about when I was young and the
hopes I had for my future. I wanted to do something positive with my life,
but the cycle that my life spun around was pressure from my peers and lack
of attention from my parents, needing them to help guide me and to talk to.

Whenever a child is abandoned, a child feels shame. The most important
relationship in our life is with our parents. The love that you give your
child shows love, and when you do not give your children attention, it
brings a change. Whenever there's abuse, children think it's because of
them. When we're abandoned, we're set up for shame. Who can I depend on, if
I can't trust my own parents? Out of this comes the addiction dependency.

The attention you give shapes your child's life. Your choices dictate your
child's future. I cry out to you to give them love, listen to their
reasons, because if you don't, alcohol and drugs will.

Talk to your children, let them know that no matter what they face, your
heart and your attention are theirs.

There will always be alcohol and drugs, waiting for the lonely ones, the
abused and neglected ones. And your child might not be one of the lucky
ones like me. They may end up in a pine box instead of a prison bed.

- -- Robert Lee Mongro

Piedmont Correctional Institution