Wednesday, February 28, 2001

It's me again, here to clear up obvious misinterpretations of my letter printed Feb 14. The point of my letter was not to state that I am the "center of the universe," nor was it to cause such ((mostly)) uncalled for responses as I received. I expected angry responses, but I was quite shocked at the firestorm of reactions I sparked. Granted, I may have written the letter in a moment of anger, and some things may have been misinterpreted, and if that was my fault I apologize.

The average day-to-day traffic at Starr's Mill High School/Rising Starr Middle School is not what I was referring to. What I was ranting about was the quadrupling of that traffic on the rainy days (which is caused by the kids that do not want to ride the bus on rainy days for whatever reason). The day after the feedback to my article was printed, the same problem occurred again, causing even more students to be late. Now, responding to all of the replies I received

It's true, I could ride the bus, and all adults who commute to their jobs around Atlanta could take the shuttle, MARTA, taxis, etc. But haven't I (as well as most upperclassmen who drive) earned the privilege of driving just as adults have? I would think so.

The reason I and a multitude of other teenagers at my school drive is because: A) we have before- or after-school activities (sports, tutoring, etc.), or B) we have immediate after-school jobs.

I partake in both A and B. If my parents, as well as parents of others in my situation, had to drive us to school every morning or pick us up every evening, it would not only inconvienence them, but their employers, etc. Hence the reason I drive to school (and often carpool with friends). I pay for all the gas and maintenence for my car, as well as partial monthly payments to my parents. No, I am not stupid, and I know this is not how it is in the "real world."

Continuing, I guess that adults shouldn't look at teenagers as people that should have any sort of "adult" privileges, or God forbid, any opinions, right? Because after all, we are teenagers. Maybe my parents should take my car away, I should just quit my job and all of my extracurricular activities, and they can just give me money all the time and drive me everywhere I want to go. Oh, wait! Then that would make me a "spoiled PTC brat" as many people already proudly pigeonholed me to be. And good Lord, my parents would never support me in that sense (and I would never expect them to).

In conclusion, I have now written yet another letter that will most likely cause another large amount of hate mail. But, I know that I am speaking for a vast majority of students at my school, many of whom praised my attempts at clearing up a trivial problem such as the rainy-day traffic.

I apologize for going completely off subject, but I think that all of these topics eventually fall under the same category. And to those of you who are sick of reading about this, I also apologize, but I figured I'd give it a final shot.

And last Mr. Page, coming from someone who speaks to young adults in such a pathetic manner as to use a Tweety Bird/Elmer Fudd-type vocabulary, I need to get a life?

Kerry FitzPatrick

SMHS 2001

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