CRIME - DRUGS DESTROY DREAMS

There is an element in pop culture that glorifies crime.

Unfortunately, the target of those messages mostly are children and young
adults seeking to differentiate themselves from their parents and other
enforcers of social norms.

In the movies and on the radio, the new anti-hero scoffs at society - and
at life itself - with seeming impunity.

This is not a real-life picture.

Bryan Walton and David Richardson know.

They should be in college. The closest they can come to the ivy halls now
are vocational classes behind bars. Both are inmates at the state prison in
Coal Township. On Wednesday they shared with a group of Shikellamy students
the true costs of scoffing at society.

Richardson dreamed of being a doctor, Walton a flight nurse swooping down
from the skies to save people. Instead, Richardson aspires to be a mechanic
when he gets out of prison and Walton is grounded, possibly forever.

Richardson chose to become a drug dealer. He was seduced by a glossy image,
but now must face a cold-steel reality. And he was one of the lucky ones:
Ten to 20 years in prison instead of an early funeral.

Walton already was in college when his choice to drink and drive steered
him astray - right into the path of a pedestrian on the side of the road.
Police charged him with DUI homicide. The family of the man he killed
charged him, at least in their own minds, with flat-out murder. Their
sentence: life without possibility of forgiveness. Richardson's actual
criminal sentence is 3 to 6 years in prison, and a life full of promise on
indefinite hold.

From different backgrounds to the same bleak future, Richardson and Walton
are trying to reconcile their youthful dreams with their still youthful
nightmares.

While their talk at Shikellamy and other area schools may have been
inspired by the possibilities of parole, their message to students was
straight from the heart: Don't follow us.

Redemption for Walter and Richardson, if it can be found, lies between the
ears of their young listeners. Perhaps a real lesson from "the street" can
cut through the imaginary glitter and romance of media- induced fantasy.

Area students should learn a simple lesson in logic from the convicts:
Abusing drugs or alcohol is a crime; jail, or worse, is the end result of
crime; therefore, do not abuse drugs or alcohol.

If students can process that equation, the fakery behind the worst of pop
culture will become obvious, and lose its paper-thin luster.