Used to be there was danger in America. Fans and electrical outlets unprotected. We need to make America more dangerous, so Darwin can do his job. If mommy can't keep crotchfruit from sticking a knife in an electrical socket, she doesn't need to vote, either.

Hi Neal,
I am a seventeen-year-old student enrolled in a math, science, and technology magnet program at a Cobb County public high school near Harrison. My mom listens to your show all the time (and loves it) and told me about your opinion on the teenage "athlete" deaths that we've seen in the past few years. I just wanted to tell you that I completely agree with your point. It seems that the only teen car crash fatalities that anyone cares about anymore are the star athletes. And yes, they are certainly tragedies, and the families of the students lost are certainly in terrible pain. What bothers me is that the students with the half-page stories in the newspapers (and as you pointed out on the radio--Garrett's death was listed FOUR times in the AJC) are all for the athletes and otherwise "popular" students. But what about the other students that lose their lives in car crashes?
I remember one specific incident last year where a Wheeler magnet student got in a fatal car wreck on the way from school to his internship location. Most people may not even remember this. Why? Because all the poor kid got was a few lines in the back of the paper and about five minutes of everyone saying, "Oh, that's too bad." Whereas with someone like Luke Abbate, who died years ago, is still discussed all the time.
Things like this make me really sad for the world we live in today. Why do we do we look at a situation like Garrett's death as a world-shattering, unexpected tragedy? Yes, it is devastating that he died. But he was not thinking. He made terrible decisions that unfortunately he will never be able to learn from--I can only hope others WILL. Let's compare two situations: Garrett went to a wild party, got drunk, decided to drive, and crashed, killing himself and almost taking someone else with him; the Wheeler student was near the top of his class and died responsibly driving to a job for a class for school (not drunk in the slightest). But which one do you think everyone remembers? The star athlete of course! Not the hard-working "nerd" who--God forbid--probably never even picked up a football in his life.
My heart goes out to the families of both boys, but I am still utterly disappointed in my community as a whole. I wish people could wake up and realize that athletes are not the gods of the world and pay attention to the values of other lives, too. I hate to see perfectly good people get lost in the mix.

Hey Josh,
If you're going to pick apart Neal's punctuation, at least learn how to spell first. It's "list" not "liste".

Neal, the worst thing that can happen to a human being is to lose a child. There is nothing that even compares. My wife and I lost a 17 year old child 4 years ago and I can tell you that as a parent it is a fate worse than death. It is the one thing in life that you can not recover from. It kills a piece of you. It kills your future. When we lost our daughter, the only thing that kept my wife and I inhaling and exhaling those first few weeks was the kind words of other people. I truly hope the parents of this child don't read this. I'm a long time fan. You're not a small man. The point you were trying to make wasn't worth the pain you will cause these people if they read it.

Rumors at HHS worth investigating: there were alcohol-related/incriminating photos posted (and probably now deleted) of this boy on Facebook pages.

I second what PaulDPearl said. MN driver's are horrible and have no idea how to merge. We have had so many teenage deaths from a variety of reasons around the Metro.

My husband and I are from Wisconsin and Michigan originally. We both think MN driver's are horrible and they absolutely have no idea how to merge. It's not just the teenagers. Glad to see we arent the only ones to notice this merging problem!

Q: What is wrong with grief counselers?

A: Grief counselers are the modern day snake-oil salesmen. What is wrong with allowing parents, friends, teachers and normal school counselers (who have the most worthless job known to man anyway) do this "Grief counseling"? Humanity has dealt with death for 1000s of years without grief counselers...

The lines of people at the West Cobb Funeral Home last night were unbelievable.

I always thought Panda's were smarter than the average bear....now I know why

First off the grammar of the article is incorrect as Panda rightly stated. This is why a comma is required in a liste of three or more things before the "and".

Secondly, Neal is being an idiot here. They only meant to say that he came to school every day and did his work. In other words he is not a trouble maker.

A few facts about teenage drivers. There are 43,000 fatalities in car wrecks each year in the US. About 5600 of those fatalities are teenagers from 16 to 17. That is about 12%. There are about 1.2 million wrecks involving teenagers each year in the US while there are 5.25 million car accidents overall. So they make up about 20% of the accidents, but only 12% of the fatalities. They may be the worst segment of drivers, but at least the they don't cause so many deaths.

Minnesota has a very strict driver's education before licensing policy... yet Minnesota drivers are among the worste in the world... (trust me).

I've not concluded that teenagers shouldn't drive, but restricting when and where and how many passengers might be a good idea. The thing is, kids learn faster than adults, so if you don't teach kids how to drive they'll have a harder time learning when they're older...

I wanted to make the point, however, that it isn't about how hard the drivers test is... Atlanta drivers are much better than Minnesota drivers.. and most Minnesota drivers went through 6 months of Drivers Ed... They apparently don't teach "merging" in drivers ed because Minnesota drivers have no idea how to merge.. and we have the longest on-ramps in the nation...

Neal can't stand jockes, especially young ones. He hates that some kis differentiate themselves from others in a way that earns them acclaim.

Love you long time Neal, but you have a bad case of loseritis when it comes to athletes.

I saw the parents on the news. They don't believe that alcohol was a factor. I wonder if they think letting their 16 year old stay out past midnight was a factor?!?

A panda walks into a restaurant, eats shoots and leaves.

A panda walks into a restaurant, eats shoots, and leaves.

A panda walks into a restaurant, eats, shoots, and leaves.

As much as I agree with your 'cult of the athlete' stand, I think you misread this. A grammar refresher: 'played sports' is middle of a list of three items. Now if they had said "just a regular kid who came to school and did what he was supposed to do -- played sports -- and was part of the community" or "just a regular kid who came to school and did what he was supposed to do: played sports and was part of the community" then you would be accurate. "Last night I went to a restaurant and had my favorite entree, a glass of tea and a slice of pie" -- same sentence construction, so do you really think 'a glass of tea' is my favorite entree?