Is this really necessary?

Grim reminder
The 99 tells how many young people die every day
March 19, 2009 - 3:41 PM
BY DOUG CARMAN/ Odessa American

The recreated scenes are stark.

Blood pooled in front of the car wreck from the dead teenaged bodies flung over the hood, through the windshields and on the pavement. A husband and wife in the other car, calling on a cell phone frantic and distraught standing before their crying child and the tragedy before them.

Nearby, a filthy meth lab with more teenagers stoned out of their minds, tripping on the verge of an overdose.

Further down the walk, another 20-something who took his own life.

The 13 morbid, sometimes graphic re-enactments are just that, but production manager Justin D. Christensen of "The 99" said they're not trying to make up some kind of haunted house under the big canopy behind Music City Mall. There is a message to this "reality walk-through theater" that opens today, and it starts with the group's name.

"It's an awareness program," he said. "The 99 teens and young adults who will die every day in America, most of them are preventable."

Honestly teenagers aren't inherently stupid. They're risk takers who underestimate the costliness of their mistakes but I honestly believe the do understand there is risk involved. I always find the lavish displays are insulting to one's intelligence and over the top. Wouldn't be easier to have an open and honest discussion about these things in class. And then the ones who value their lives will make the right decisions and the ones who don't will blow up with a meth lab. Plus this tour is free and when I hear that I automatically assume we're the ones paying for it.