Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk

Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk
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There’s no other way to put it — it’s been a tough start to the season in Ocean City. The weather has been terrible for the most part. Two people have died on Coastal Highway in horrific accidents and another seriously injured.

Yesterday’s scene at 28th Street was as horrendous as it gets. According to video shared with this newspaper, the motorcyclist was heading southbound on Coastal Highway at a high rate of speed and clearly being pursued by police vehicles, at least initially. Witnesses on the scene reported a large pickup was heading from west to east across Coastal Highway following the traffic light when the collision occurred, launching the motorcycle about 30 yards in the air and instantly killing the man. The investigation was very much in its early stages as of yesterday afternoon.

With situations like this, all we can do is hope for no more incidents like it in the future and give best wishes to the families involved.

The State Highway Administration has set a nice precedent with the Coastal Highway project finishing ahead of time.

Although the hard goal was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, there appears to have been an internal wish to be completed by Cruisin’ weekend. Despite all this soggy weather over the last few weeks, it got done.

This is the weekend all construction projects should be targeted to be completed by because it’s truly the launch of the summer season.

To be completely honest, the heroin epidemic is dominating a lot of my thoughts these days. Between our ongoing coverage in this newspaper and friends being impacted seemingly on a daily basis from overdoses, it’s occupying my thoughts.

It has occurred to me throughout the last couple weeks that scaring our youth through education and hammering home the facts and dangers of drugs, particularly heroin, is an absolute must. That’s why last weekend when my oldest son asked what “overdose” meant it was important to explain it in a manner in which he would understand it.

To me an effective way to communicate about the severity of this lesson is to hammer home and be clear about human mortality. Young people view themselves as immortal. It’s natural. It’s been that way forever. It takes something tragic to often convince us that’s not the case.

I remember back in college in the mid-1990s when two classmates died my junior year from infectious mononucleosis (better known simply as “mono”). It was a shock to the campus and I recall the college dean saying in a television news interview, “This is a painful lesson in mortality for all our students.” He was right. It was that for certain.

It’s no secret young people lack the perspective and experience to realize how fragile life can be. How everything can change in one instance. How one poor decision can not only alter their life forever but their entire community and loved ones. The message of specifically how nobody is immortal needs to be heard. It needs to be understood. It must have an impact.

When asked about remedies to this heroin epidemic and preventing further impacts on families, State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby hit the proverbial nail on the head.

“It will be education. I try to scare my kids every chance I get about this drug because I see firsthand just how dangerous it is. I explain to them that they are not indestructible and they are not superman and superwoman and it can happen to them. It can happen to anyone,” he said in an interview this week.

I would like to see more of an emphasis placed on educating the kids about the dangers of this specific drug in our schools in the months and years to come.

About The Author: Steven Green

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The writer has been with The Dispatch in various capacities since 1995, including serving as editor and publisher since 2004. His previous titles were managing editor, staff writer, sports editor, sales account manager and copy editor. Growing up in Salisbury before moving to Berlin, Green graduated from Worcester Preparatory School in 1993 and graduated from Loyola University Baltimore in 1997 with degrees in Communications (journalism concentration) and Political Science.