The drug which has affected me the most is alcohol, which I really believe is a drug. My father was an alcoholic from the time I was born until I was 12 years old, which was a big part of my life, and it kept him from giving me the protection that I believe I deserved and could come to expect from a father.

Alcohol stole my community, my entire community.

But as for alcohol’s effect on my community, alcohol stole my community, my entire community. On May 14, 1988, I lived in Radcliff, Kentucky. I was supposed to attend a bus church trip to an amusement park, but my mother pulled me off the bus at the last minute. That bus was carrying all my friends—a total of 72 people—to King’s Island amusement park for a field trip. This was the last time I ever saw my best friend.

On the way back home, a drunken driver, a 36-year-old, with a blood alcohol [content] of 2.21, crossed over a large medium and hit the bus in the ongoing direction, and it struck just right … And it caused it to explode on impact, killing 27 people and burning and injuring 34 people.

I wanted to say that what reminds me the most, then, is school buses. And that’s because I lost my childhood and all of my friends who were the school bus that night.