ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992                   TAG: 9203060462
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DON'T SELL DRUGS OR CARRY GUN; JAIL ROUGH

I'M AN INMATE in the Roanoke County jail. I'm only 17 years old. I'm writing to get a message to the youth generation. The youths shouldn't be out there selling drugs or carrying a gun, because jail is a really rough place.

I always wanted to be accepted by my peers, because they sold drugs and carried guns. Negative things are really not cool. I've been away 10 months now, because I chose to hang out with negative peers. All the time I thought they cared for me. Well, I was wrong, because they don't even write or come to visit. They don't care as long as it's not them.

I guess I had to learn the hard way. And I'm trying to get a message to the rest of the youths before it happens to them. The best thing teen-agers can do is stay on the positive side and stay in school. I always thought that school was a joke too, but now I've taken my GED. When I get out of here, I'm enrolling in college.

Youths, what I'm telling you is to believe in yourselves and the one who sent you on this wonderful journey we call life. That's Jesus Christ. DONALD SAUNDERS SALEM 


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