The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

Columns

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. To join the discussion, you must first register with Disqus and verify your email address. Once you do, your comments will post automatically. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.
comments powered by Disqus
February 6, 2010

Tim Rogers: A hard subject to tackle

Good morning.

I normally dislike saying something is the best or the worst, because just as soon as you do, something will come along and trump it.

For me, U2 replaced REM who replaced The Clash who replaced The Eagles as the best rock band ever, and despite my daughters’ infatuation with pop music, most new artists seem to be competing in some kind of bizarre race to the bottom to see whose songs can go even lower on the taste scale.

That’s just the nature of life.

We don’t know what the next thing will be that is going to be coming down our highway, and we are probably better off for it.

As a journalist, however, I can tell you with certainty that among the hardest stories for me to cover are those that involve youth running afoul of the law.

But as I have gotten older — and not coincidentally now have children who are teenagers — I have come to realize that they are among the most important stories that we write about as well.

Let me explain.

I have a difficulty writing about youth crime because I tend to see the kids not as defendants who made a decision that they now have to live with, but more as scared teenagers who are someone’s children.

I look at the story and ask the question, what happened? What caused those kids to make that decision? Could we as a society have done something to prevent it?

Teen crime, and in particular violent teen crime, is a serious problem not just here in Dalton but in every community in the country.

And far more people than just the victims, the accused and their families are affected by it.

As a paper we have a duty to write about the subject and document it when youth crime events occur. We don’t serve anyone’s interest by not writing about it or “covering it up.” If we are to be credible, we have to insist on the same set of rules for everyone, and I believe that the healthiest communities are ones where openness is encouraged and efforts to prevent the spread of information are squashed.

But as a paper, we have to do more than just document the crimes as they are committed.

We have to challenge ourselves and the community to become part of the effort to solve the problem of youth crime. What are we doing in the area to mentor teens who are in trouble? What are we doing to give them alternatives to getting in trouble? Are we having honest conversations with our children about making good choices or are we leaving that up to TV, the Internet, the latest YouTube video and texts from friends?

I have sat in trials where 16-, 17- and 18-year-old defendants have been found guilty of breaking the law and I wonder do they understand how fundamentally their lives are about to change.

There are numerous individuals and organizations — most especially our educators — who dedicate their lives to trying to steer our young in the right direction.

I want to hear from you about what we need to be doing better in Dalton and write about it.

It is only as a united community that we are going to be able to do anything about steering our youth away from trouble and helping them grow up to be responsible adults.

You can reach Tim Rogers at (706) 272-7735 or at timrogers@daltoncitizen.com.

Text Only