Ray Lozano brought his message of resistance to drugs and alcohol to Perry Middle School students Wednesday, and the students responded with enthusiasm.
“There’s something amazing inside everyone of you,” the drug and substance prevention specialist told the Perry youngsters. “Drugs and alcohol take that amazing thing away from you.”
Lozano asked the students whether they knew students who were good at school and who then started “drinking alcohol or smoking weed” and saw their grades fall until they dropped out. Or whether they knew star athletes who lost their talents once they started using. Or whether they knew kids who were close to their parents and then started using and drifted away from their family ties.
The young people answered resoundingly that they did indeed know such students.
The noted speaker’s Perry visit was sponsored by the Iowa Elks Association, with the Boone and Jefferson lodges doing the leg work. With an Elk as his guide, Lozano made a five-town whirlwind tour, addressing students Tuesday at Ogden High School, Boone High School and Boone’s Trinity Lutheran High School and at middle schools in Jefferson and Perry Wednesday.
“It was fun to watch,” said Dolan Olson of the Boone Elks Lodge 563. “The kids would be restless when he first started. Then they slowly became quite interested in what he was saying.”
Miranda Brus, Perry Middle School counselor, said Lozano’s message reaches young people and can strengthen their resistance to drugs and alcohol.
Brus said Lozano’s lecture would not be followed by a formal discussion in classes, but she encouraged teachers to “take the time to get student feedback, answer any questions and process” the experience.
“I truly believe young people have amazing potential,” Lozano said. “With the right tools and direction, that potential can be realized and even soar. My mission is to make a difference in the lives of young people and teach them to do the same in others.”
Lozano is a drug and alcohol counselor certified by the state of California.
“I truly believe young people have amazing potential,” Lozano said. “With the right tools and direction, that potential can be realized and even soar.”
Another thing that would help would be changing society so every person could freely live up to their potential. There’s a big problem with that, tho. Our police state/militarist state would come to a screeching halt if enough young people were really allowed to blossom. When the kids develop the capacity to really think for themselves, they demand more equity out of the system. Military recruitment drops precipitously. All manner of injustices previously accepted as being part of the status-quo are no longer tolerated. No. Our current system requires vast numbers of our young to give up hope and become members of a permanent underclass. Substance abuse culls out those unnecessary and undesirable. If some have remarked about religion being the opiate of the masses, what can be said about opium, booze and all other addictive drugs. People, the operative term here is “social control.”