To the editor:

With a bill before the Iowa Legislature masquerading as a bill to protect us helpless college students from ourselves, I can’t help but wonder when state and federal legislators are going to truly begin protecting the helpless.

When are lawmakers going to realize that the people who need their help are not the ones drinking their lives away in college dorm rooms.

While I agree with legislators that binge drinking is a serious issue for a larger number of students than we think, I do not agree with their choice of approach.

While I grew up in a very loving household and can never once recall my parents laying a hand on me, I have known plenty of others who were not so fortunate.

I have known too many people who have not gone to school, not because their parents called them in ill, but because one or both of their parents spent the night verbally and physically abusing that child. Even more frightening to me are the parents of these friends of mine.

Most of us think of abusive parents as the drunks, druggies and all around waste of our society. But these parents did not appear as such.

Many were, externally, hard working, church-going, PTA board member parents. All seemed to take an active interest in their child’s life and all seemed to be kind and loving parents. What these parents really were, were great actors.

When these parents beat their children and verbally crushed them, they were not the concerned and caring parents they appeared to the world to be. Every time one of these kids called the police for help, they were dismissed.

After all, who’s going to believe a 12- to 18-year-old over a 40+ parent? It didn’t happen just once. Again and again and again this same scenario was played over again. Every time with the same result.

So my plea to legislators is this; help those who really need help. Help those who are unable to help themselves.

Where is the compassion and concern for these young people?

Michael Anderson

Sophomore

Computer engineering