For a Brief Moment Lake Forest Made a Noble Effort

Excerpts from the Mobile Register:

Two sets of teenage brothers died early Saturday when the Jeep Cherokee they were riding in swerved across U.S. 98 into a ditch and struck a tree, authorities said. Antin Banks, 16; Byron Harris, 15; and Larance Porter, 15; all were pronounced dead at the scene, Baldwin County Coroner Huey Mack Sr. said. Christopher Porter, 14, died later Saturday morning at Baptist Hospital

In May, Chelsea Ann Bragg, 16, of Daphne veered off the north shoulder of U.S. 90 and jerked the steering wheel to right the car, causing it to roll twice. Police blamed the wreck on Bragg's cell phone use --either talking or trying to send a text message while she was driving -- and said that she may have survived the roll if she had been wearing a seat belt like her 16-year-old passenger who survived. 

April, 16-year-old Lauren White of Bon Secour died and her 15-year-old sister Brittany was critically injured when the car they were in swerved off Baldwin County 65 and struck a tree

March, Nicole Pool, a 17-year-old Foley resident, died after being ejected in an early morning, two-vehicle wreck

5/5/2006.

The above facts are from a story in yesterday's Mobile Register.  Year before last the Lake Forest Board of Directors tried to provide a facility for kids in this age range at the old Swim & Racquet Club building.  The club called The Dox was a great success for a short period of time.  Unfortunately, the personal interests of just a handful of Lake Forest residents caused that facility to be closed down.  The two leaders of this group, who lived on the street next to the teen center, were Mike Dubose and George Lieb.  You may remember that Lieb recently made the local news regarding his "domestic violence involving a minor" incident and Dubose has been something of a poster child for the Slate of Five since, apparently, they feel he helped them win their positions.  Lieb for some time had been claiming that the young people were out of control down there, even though he could produce no evidence of that and it later turned out that it was Lieb himself who was creating the problem. The police officers, who worked the club, all said that the kids were well behaved and creating no problems. This writer actually attended most of the events at the club and can testify to that.  When one of these two individuals found out that visiting bands would advertise on a local website, he scoured the Internet for anything that might help him create an issue that he could use to win his cause.  Unfortunately, he found the site of one teenage band, out of well over thirty that played at the club, that was totally disgusting and unacceptable.  It made no difference that the operators of the club had determined the same thing and informed the band that they could not play the offensive material at our teen center anymore to which the band agreed.  It made no difference that the Board of Directors had established rules of behavior for the patrons of the facility, which the operators enforced.  The rules included no alcohol, no smoking in the building and no disruptive behavior.  The police officers confirmed that the rules were enforced.  It made no difference that in over a year, there was never an incident at the club and it made no difference that Lake Forest was providing a safe place for our teens to go, so that they did not have to drive the highways like the children in the above report.  These guys found their issue and spent the next several months trying to create the perception that the offensive material was the only thing being played down there.  It is ironic that the night the club was closed, the entertainment of the evening consisted of several Christian bands.  The two men even provided a police report from another club in another town to support their position, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with The Dox.  At the annual meeting Dubose stood before the audience and said he was "standing up for Jesus".  He also suggested through innuendo that the operators were promoting sex and sin at the club.  There was absolutely no merit to any of it.  It was a shameful performance by Dubose and one for which I continue to be embarrassed for the man, although I am sure he is proud of himself.  The whole episode involving our teen center and the depths of ugliness to which some in Lake Forest can stoop to get their way totally disgusted this writer and ended his interest in serving on the Lake Forest Board of Directors.

The news stories at the beginning of this piece are terrible and one cannot even begin to comprehend the sadness that the parents of those children must have to endure.  Young people need a place to gather,  socialize and enjoy.  Right now, Lake Forest kids hang out at the shopping center, deserted cul-de-sacs and other unsupervised locations.  The Churches are the only entities that are making any attempt to provide for these kids, but unfortunately, they are unable to reach a large segment of them.  Lake Forest did provide a teen haven.  It was successful.  For a short while our community gave these young people a safe place to go and have fun without ever having to get on a highway or even go through a red light.  Lake Forest should be proud of having done it in spite of the distorted perception that Dubose, Lieb and just a few others tried to portray.  Lake Forest should do it again.  When the two men were spewing their filth, they said that they supported a teen center and some of the current board made similar statements.  Yet, during the whole episode, they never offered to help find a solution to their manufactured problems.  The only option was to close the place down.  The Dox has been closed for almost a year.  There has been no attempt to replace it.  They have even discussed tearing the building down.  How sincere do you think they were in their concern for providing for these kids?

Normally, this site is open for uncensored contributions from anyone who is willing to identify themselves.  However, on this issue there will be no tolerance given to the kind of reprehensible trash that was spewed by Dubose and Lieb.  This writer did something that none of the critics of that facility did.  He actually attended events at the club.  He actually went inside the building along with other parents and watched the kids and the bands.  He actually talked to the police officers involved and watched the operators perform their duties.  He actually knows what he is talking about.

Mitch Davis