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Editorial A prophetic editorial last week outlined our disagreement with those who offer excuses for young people who make the wrong decisions based on the belief that "they have nothing better to do." The editorial provided several constructive alternatives to causing vandalism, loitering and doing other irresponsible and illegal activities. The editorial also pointed out that lame excuses for young people who make bad choices is an affront against all the young people who work hard, sacrifice and make the right choices. After that editorial appeared, fate brought together three young people in West Islip this week, two of whom who had made the right choice to spend their time giving back to their community as volunteer firefighters; the other who made the wrong choice to drink and drive. The result of this encounter was that these two young volunteers were struck and seriously injured and are struggling to recover. The young 17-yearold driver, Jillian Lazinsky of West Islip, who made the choice to drink and drive now faces the legal and emotional ramifications of her actions, for the rest of her life. From all accounts, Lazinsky is not a troubled young person and appears to have had, up until the moment she chose to drink in a school parking lot, get into her car and drive away, a responsible life as an honor student with a part-time job. But a bad decision, despite all of the social pressures against drinking and driving, places two young men, Joe Ortiz and TJ Devlin, in the hospital, struggling to regain back their lives. There are no excuses for this kind of irresponsible bad behavior and if there is anything to be gained from this tragedy it is the lesson, applied now in tragedy once again to young and old that drunk driving kills and injures and that even a single irresponsible act can have dire consequences for life.
A sign in front of the West Islip firehouse says simply: Our prayers and thoughts go out to TJ Devlin and Joe Ortiz for a speedy recovery. We echo those sentiments, thank them for their willingness to serve and wish them well.
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