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Ernest Rodriguez speeches, 1976-2006

Ernest Rodriguez Speech on Drugs Page 2

child from me and I started to talk to my son to calm him down. I can remember the wild look in his eyes and how fearful I was at that moment that he would stab me with that deadly sharp knife. After a few moments he did calm down enough to realize what he was doing and turned and left the room and the house. There were other such altercations with him and the other two younger sons. These altercations included angry shouting of profanities by my sons and sometimes physical violence. Fortunately I retained enough knowledge of self defense to protect myself and to restrain them except once when one of sons caught me off guard when I was examining one of the tires of my car he allegedly tried to slice and he kicked me in the head which made me quite dizzy. In cold weather that side of my head still causes me pain.

Although I counseled my sons regarding the devastating effects of drugs and used all the powers of parenthood to get them to stop using drugs and to conduct themselves properly, it was some years later before they matured enough to quit on their own or sunk to such lows that the trauma of some experience while in a drunken or drugged state put the fear of God in them enough for them to stop their depravation. I hope that some of my teaching and counsel did penetrate their drug-induced minds and also helped them eventually turn away from drug use. I've only related the foregoing experiences with my own children to dramatize the ravaging effect of drugs on family relations and its devastation of the mind and everything that is meaningful in life.

I agonize over the totally adverse impact of drugs on our society, schools, children, and families. I like you and other concerned people search in my mind, heart, and prayers for an answer to this overwhelming problem. I still haven't found a clear-cut answer. But I do know that we are going to have to educate out children and grand-children as to the evil effects of drug-use and all it entails. I believe the school can do more in this respect. School authorities need to be in the forefront of implementing a curriculum for every grade from kindergarten through high school. Such a curriculum in order to be successful should utilize former drug users to talk directly to the kids and relate their own traumatic experiences with drugs. This education program can be integrated into an established mandatory subject but it should be offered frequently, at least once a week I believe, in order to be effective. It isn't enough that law enforcement personnel go into the schools occasionally to lecture on drug use. Our educational professionals need to come together with staff of drug treatment agencies and anyone else with some expertise and develop a curriculum which will have the maximum impact and success in turning young children away from drug use.

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child from me and I started to talk to my son to calm him down. I can remember the wild look in his eyes and how fearful I was at that moment that he would stab me with that deadly sharp knife. After a few moments he did calm down enough to realize what he was doing and turned and left the room and the house. There were other such altercations with him and the other two younger sons. These altercations included angry shouting of profanities by my sons and sometimes physical violence. Fortunately I retained enough knowledge of self defense to protect myself and to restrain them except once when one of sons caught me off guard when I was examining one of the tires of my car he allegedly tried to slice and he kicked me in the head which made me quite dizzy. In cold weather that side of my head still causes me pain. Although I counseled my sons regarding the devastating effects of drugs and used all the powers of parenthood to get them to stop using drugs and to conduct themselves properly, it was some years later before they matured enough to quit on their own or sunk to such lows that the trauma of some experience while in a drunken or drugged state put the fear of God in them enough for them to stop their depravation. I hope that some of my teaching and counsel did penetrate their drug-induced minds and also helped them eventually turn away from drug use. I've only related the foregoing experiences with my own children to dramatize the ravaging effect of drugs on family relations and its devastation of the mind and everything that is meaningful in life. I agonize over the totally adverse impact of drugs on our society, schools, children, and families. I like you and other concerned people search in my mind, heart, and prayers for an answer to this overwhelming problem. I still haven't found a clear-cut answer. But I do know that we are going to have to educate out children and grand-children as to the evil effects of drug-use and all it entails. I believe the school can do more in this respect. School authorities need to be in the forefront of implementing a curriculum for every grade from kindergarten through high school. Such a curriculum in order to be successful should utilize former drug users to talk directly to the kids and relate their own traumatic experiences with drugs. This education program can be integrated into an established mandatory subject but it should be offered frequently, at least once a week I believe, in order to be effective. It isn't enough that law enforcement personnel go into the schools occasionally to lecture on drug use. Our educational professionals need to come together with staff of drug treatment agencies and anyone else with some expertise and develop a curriculum which will have the maximum impact and success in turning young children away from drug use.