43
Summit teaches youths the truth about consequences of decisions
YOUNGSTOWN
William Peterson is 12 and not quite out of grade school, but he knows that he will now make better decisions when selecting friends.
William, a resident of the city’s East Side, attended a youth summit Tuesday dealing with how decisions can influence one’s life. The summit called “The Truth: How One Decision Can Impact Your Life” was sponsored by the Mahoning Valley Task Force on Crime and Violence Prevention.
Several dozen youths sat in an auditorium in the Rockford Village housing development and listened to police officers, business leaders and the mayor of Youngstown explain why it is important to make good decisions. Police Lt. Kevin Mercer and Lynn Phillips of L.E. Black, Phillips & Holden Funeral Home also spoke.
William may have been influenced by a story told by Mayor Jay Williams about his selection of friends as a young man.
The mayor said that he once found himself in trouble with his father after a group of people he was with were caught throwing rocks at a church. The mayor explained that he had not thrown a single rock, but his decision to hang around that group had consequences.
“Never let your friends or someone else make a decision for you,” he said. “It’s good to have friends and good to be sociable, but remember at the end of the day you are responsible for your own actions.”
The mayor also encouraged the young people to learn from their bad decisions in order not to make the same mistakes.
The mayor ended with a motto he was told as a child: “Today’s decisions are tomorrow’s consequences.”
Rick George, task force chairman, also took time to relate a story about a young man who died in a car accident in 2010.
He said the 17-year-old Campbell boy worked a part-time job and enjoyed playing football, but he made a decision to get into a car in which the driver proceeded to speed.
“His obituary sits in my office even now. He was a good kid who did not deserve to die at 17, but he made a bad decision. It can affect everyone,” he said.
Kaishia Coney, 11, of Youngstown said the summit made her understand that it is important to think before you make a decision to do anything.
“They are showing us that if you make really bad decisions sometimes you can’t change it. You have to think things through,” she said. “I am going to think things through and make the right decisions.”
George said that was the summit’s goal: to make young people stop and think clearly before doing anything and hopefully making the right decision.
“Sometimes kids don’t hear these positive things. We just want to remind them to make the right decisions,” he said. “If one kid walks out of here today and remembers this, then we have made a difference.”