No. No. No. Don’t do it!

I yelled at the wrestler on television, “No. No. No. Don’t do it. Don’t let him talk you into it.” Then I yelled at the man who was supposed to be his sponsor, mentor, and friend, “He trusts you. Don’t give it to him. You are taking away his future.”

My screams didn’t go any further than the room. The television couldn’t answer back and my family looked at me as if I was crazy. It was a gut wrenching moment.

We were looking at the movie Foxcatcher. This film is about the greatest Olympic Wresting Champion brothers. They joined Team Foxcatcher, which was led by multimillionaire sponsor, John E. duPont.

The wrestler, Mark Schultz, played by Channing Tatum, was offered cocaine by his mentor, John duPont. Respect for duPont went out the window and Schultz’s potential for Olympic gold spiraled downward.

My daughter said, “It’s a known fact. Half the applicants that applied at Walmart couldn’t pass the drug test.”

I said to her, “What does that say about our town? The people need these jobs to support themselves and their family. Because of drugs, they are missing an opportunity to work.”

We read in the Durango Newspaper that a man is dead because he was in the wrong place. He was shot down by two druggies.

We read in the newspaper about the debate on drugs and how our town is handling the issue on marijuana. I’m sure there is a lot of heat going on against those who have the backbone to stand. It would be easy to waffle and feel like it doesn’t matter. It does matter. Once the door is open, other things will come in.  Other things, like crime, lost jobs and destroyed lives.

To you who are in places of influence and leadership in our town, I want to encourage you to stand fast and hold to your moral convictions against drugs. You are not alone, there are people who are backing you and feel the same way about things as you do.

I yelled at the man, Mr. duPont, who wanted to leave a legacy. I will not remember DuPont with all of his millions. I will remember him as someone who led an Olympian Gold Wrestler astray and shot and killed his brother, another Olympian Gold Wrestler.

It is the most asinine thing I’ve heard, when leaders say that marijuana sells are giving money to our schools. It’s their way of justifying a decision they made. These drugs will destroy the lives of our young people.

This is a subject that breaks my heart. When our son was on drugs, we didn’t know what to do to help him get free of this addiction. He made it through. It was almost impossible for him to break the habit. It ravished our family with pain and heartache for fifteen years. Our family has had two funerals in the last two years because of drug overdose.

You might think it won’t happen to your family. We didn’t think it would happen to ours. Someone in an executive position in our son’s company in Albuquerque was selling drugs to him.

When I told him I was going to the police and blowing the whistle on them, he said, “Don’t, you don’t know how dangerous these people are.” I would have done anything to save my child no matter the danger. Hopefully this article will save someone else’s child.

Final Brushstroke! I know how it feels to put yourself in danger. It is dangerous when you get in the way of someone making a lot of money from the sale of drugs.

 It takes a lot of guts to stand up for your convictions and to do the right thing.  It was Mr. duPont’s desire to leave a legacy, but he didn’t have the moral conviction to do what was right.