Page 30 - Flathead Beacon // 6.1.16

LIKE I WAS SAYIN’
GUEST COLUMN DENISE HARRIS
100 DEADLIEST DAYS OF SUMMER
KELLYN BROWN
IGNORING CWONSEQUENCES
SUMMER. MANY MONTANANS LIVE FOR IT. It’s three months out of the year when the days are warmer, the skies are bluer and daylight is longer. Camping, boating, hiking, shing, sports tour- naments – you name it – we cram as much as we can into those three months. Locals and tourists ood our highways all hours of the day chasing the last drop of sunlight to enjoy – opening more opportunity for vehicle collisions. Hence, the 100 Deadliest Days of Summer.
The 100 Deadliest Days of Summer is a phrase coined by AAA to de ne the timeframe between Memorial Day and Labor Day, when an increased num- ber of drivers – teenage and experienced – hit the road. It’s a time when we see the sobering statistics of high- way fatalities increasing as distractions and drinking come into play.
But the bottom line? It’s the time when your deci- sions behind the wheel can have devastating e ects for yourself, your loved ones and other drivers. The oppor- tunity to turn the stats around and do away with this phrase lies entirely in the hands of Montanans state- wide, if they would choose to use more caution, take things more slowly and focus on driving and arriving alive.
According to the Montana Department of Trans- portation, 224 loved ones never made it home in 2015 due to vehicle deaths. Of those 224 fatalities, 172 hap- pened in vehicles that had seatbelts, but in 70 percent of the cases, they weren’t used. These drivers and passengers made a choice, and that choice ended in
death. It’s simple – seatbelts save lives. Ask any rst responder to the scene of an accident, and they will resolutely tell you that a seatbelt worn saved a life, or one ignored resulted in death.
The 100 Deadliest Days is also a time when teen drivers and their parents need to take extra precau- tions. Teens crash four times more often than adult drivers, with car crashes being the leading cause of death for people ages 16-20. A young driver’s likeli- hood of dying in a crash increases with the number of passengers under 21 in the car. Parents need to set boundaries for teen drivers, mandating no cell phone use when operating a vehicle, requiring the teen drive alone or with no more than one passenger, and – most importantly – simply spend lots of time with the teen driver to give them ample practice in a wide range of situations.
This summer, we encourage Montanans to pledge to help reduce vehicle deaths on our roadways. We owe it to each one of the individuals represented by the white crosses on the roadside. The Big Sky state is too beauti- ful to have its roads littered with the debris of entirely preventable accidents.
Denice Harris is the Director of Brand and Mem- bership at AAA MountainWest, which is dedicated to preparing and protecting close to 200,000 members in Alaska, Montana and Wyoming with travel, insurance, nancial and auto-related services. AAA MountainWest can be visited on the Internet at www.mountainwest.aaa. com.
HEN ASSESSING THE SITUATION AT Flathead High after the board of trust- ees announced that 20 students would be
barred from participating in graduation for vandal- izing the school in prank gone awry, Kalispell Super- intendent Mark Flatau said, “These aren’t bad kids. They’re good kids who made a bad decision.”
He said it best.
It’s hard to imagine these students don’t think the decision they made was one of their worst. After entering the school through a broken window in the early morning hours of May 10, what began as throw- ing water and sawdust escalated into broken foun- tains and vending machines and thousands of dollars in damage.
Along with being prevented from attending the graduation ceremony (although they will receive cer- ti cates), the students still face potential trespassing and criminal mischief charges.
Lesson learned, and perhaps one they can use down the road.
Many students enter high school thinking they know everything. And when they leave four years later, many still don’t understand the consequences of their actions. There is also the desire to enter adult- hood with a bang, with something memorable.
For years, the week before graduation at my Spo- kane high school, the seniors gathered for an all- nighter on school grounds. This was years ago and, yes, times have changed. Back then the administra- tion mostly turned a blind eye as long as seniors were well behaved.
Unfortunately, my class wasn’t.
Dozens of students arrived on campus, and what began as a large social gathering quickly escalated into a large party. A bon re lit in one of the school’s garbage cans reached several feet in the air and even- tually several police cars showed up. And when they did, the scene was one of chaos.
Roughly a quarter of my senior class was on cam- pus and nearly all of them scattered. They ran in every direction and a few climbed the walls to hide on the school roof. Police began running license plates of all the vehicles in the parking lot, most of which were reg- istered to the students’ parents.
One by one those parents arrived to the scene of a bon re, running teenagers, cops chasing them with ashlights and a blazing garbage can on school grounds. My father was there, and his rst question was familiar, “What were you thinking?”
In truth, there was little thinking going on and even less after the group of seniors attending the all- nighter grew. Common sense had short-circuited and a virus had spread among us.
This is not to downplay the actions of the seniors at Flathead or those at my high school. It is, however, a reminder that we were all 18 once; just kids ignoring or naïve to consequences.
A reminder to all graduates who walk across the stage this week — the consequences are far greater now. If you fail to show up to work, you get red. If you unk out of school, you’re in debt regardless. And if you vandalize or nearly burn down a building, you’re likely to face more serious charges.
And you’ll be on your own, with no high school administrator defending your overall character and no parents around to ask, “What were you thinking?”
AMERICAN RURAL DIANE SMITH
RAISING STANDARDS OF LIVING
I
When coupled with a recent story from the Wash- ington Post, Mr. Ortmans’ ndings are troubling. According to the Post, “Americans in small towns and rural communities are dramatically less likely to start new businesses than they have been in the past, an unprecedented trend that jeopardizes the economic future of vast swaths of the country.”
Undoubtedly the recession had a pretty dire e ect on start-up creation in rural and small towns: “in the early 1990’s recovery, 125 counties combined to gen- erate half the total new business establishments in the country. In this recovery, just 20 counties have generated half the growth.” So what happened to the
105 other counties? Maybe it was lending regulations that make access to capital tough for rural and small communities or the over-gentri cation of a few cities that control a disproportionate share of U.S. wealth? Maybe it’s also about culture.
After raising millions for a tech business in the Flat- head, I was asked repeatedly by big-city residents as well as folks from rural and small communities, “How did you build a successful tech company in an out-of- the-way location?” I’d answer, “In a co ee shop with Wi-Fi, just like you’d do anywhere else.” Notably, I didn’t get asked about being a woman or baby boomer tech CEO, both pretty rare. Nope, I was asked about location. The implication was clear; successful tech- nology start-ups just didn’t happen outside of a few well-known places like Silicon Valley or Boston.
I’ve worked with lots of entrepreneurs building business o the beaten path. Whether they’re in hos- pitality, combating climate change, or building new social media platforms, they’re all hard-working, risk-taking innovators. And they all deserve a shot at being as successful as they want to be, from wherever they want to be.
Entrepreneurship needs to be able to take root and bloom beyond a few big cities. So, if you see an entrepre- neur this week (and I guarantee you will), thank her. It’s rough to put your own time and money on the line without any guarantee of success but, as Mr. Ortmans said, it results in “rising standards of living for all.”
Diane Smith is founder and CEO of American Rural
N 2014, JONATHAN ORTMANS, A SENIOR FEL- low at the Ewing Marion Kau man Foundation,
testi ed before a U.S. House Committee on Small Business. The Kau man Foundation is one of Amer- ica’s most well regarded resources on entrepreneur- ship and economic growth, so we can presume he knows his stu . Mr. Ortmans’ testimony, therefore, should be a wake-up call for all of us who care about our nation’s economic prosperity. He said, “New busi- ness creation is crucial to a healthy, vibrant economy ... Contrary to popular rhetoric, it is not small businesses, but rather new and young businesses that drive new job creation. Nearly all net new jobs are created by new and young companies. Similarly, startups are responsible for a disproportionate share of innovative activity, which creates ... rising standards of living for all.” (My emphasis added.)
30
JUNE 1, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM