THE LAW IS THE LAW
I have seen it before, especially when I was a teen myself. In fact I lost one friend in a wreck on South Live Oak Parkway and almost lost another in two separate accidents. Both involved alcohol, both wrecks involved teenagers. And now 30 years later another tragic wreck on the South Live Oak Parkway.
The term Parkway is misleading, it is a tree lined two lane road with
a 25mph speed limit. Progress is halted with periodic 4 way stops and
slowed with speed humps. The houses lining the roadway are homes of doctors
and lawyers, some upwards to a million dollars or more in value. It is
tunnel like in some places because of the overhanging limbs from the ancient
Oak trees.
Harper Williams died December 28th, in a wreck on the Parkway. He was
a student at UNC and past senior class vice president of New Hanover High
School. Williams was also a newly decorated Eagle Scout. He was an All-American
kid in anybody's book. Harper Williams best friend, Harrison Palmer, the
past senior class president of New Hanover High School and UNCW student,
was driving the Chevy Tahoe that went out of control, flipping and ultimately
throwing Williams from the truck and killing him.
Both Williams and Palmer had been out earlier that night, dressed in black
tuxedos, as escorts to the new debutante crowd of Wilmington's elite.
Many of the adults there that evening and generations of evenings just
like that one, recall a group of happy and smiling teens all dressed in
their finest, prim and proper, grasping the mantle of perhaps a privileged
future. Parents, grandparents all beaming with pride as they see their
heirs twirl hand in hand around the dance floor.
Many there that evening have known each other since birth. Families interconnected
in life as in business. Many of the children, like Harper and Harrison
and all those that knew them are/were linked together, if not genetically,
by experience. These are the next bankers, lawyers, legislators and real
estate tycoons given opportunities only wealth and a position of status
can afford. It is these, literally, movers and shakers of this dance,
this historical southern ball, that will someday make the decisions in
operating rooms, courtrooms and boardrooms that will directly effect each
of us in time.
And like every family in this country, in this world, they suffer from
time to time from the same plague that befalls too many of our promising
youth. Drugs and alcohol work their way into every neighborhood. It isn't
just the poor and uneducated that fall victim, it is Forest Hills and
South Oleander, from Beacon Hill to Main Street as well. It wasn't that
long ago when the grandson of the late Dr. John Codington drove, while
intoxicated, his speeding car into a light pole on Wrightsville Avenue
killing an occupant. It wasn't that long ago when one of Wilmington's
wealthiest families lost two children to drugs and ultimately suicide.
It was just the other week that the body of a brilliant Cape Fear Academy
graduate was found in a cheap motel from a supposed fatal dose of heroin.
What makes these deaths so disturbing, I think, is that they show the
evil capabilities and destructive powers of drugs and alcohol. Even those
with the means and education to assist in the prevention and treatment
of such problems, can do little to stop its deadly effects much less recognize
it. It is like being told all your life that the devil only attacks the
weak and rebellious, then you read the book of Job and learn that even
God's most exemplary human is subject to horrible pain and suffering.
Everyone is vulnerable either directly or indirectly.
"All are punished", this has to be one of the greatest
lines in literature, the tragedy surrounding the death of Romeo and Juliet,
"all are punished" for sure. We all are punished and
suffer from unchecked ID's, from deceptive advertising and promotional
campaigns and from the public exploits of superstars blatantly glorifying
their stumbling drunken abuses. We suffer from the judges that on average
acquit over 30% of the 80,000 DWI defendants that test with a blood alcohol
content of over . 08. We suffer from not making more arrests for drug
offenses. When was the last time we saw a huge drug arrest here, not just
sweeping the streets but pulling the fat cats from their high perches
of power and influence and give them our best efforts to prosecute them
straight to hell? We are all punished for our willingness to make excuses,
such as kids will be kids, or its just a right of passage. When in fact
the large majority of teens do not drink or do drugs. We are all punished
when we do not open our eyes to the dangers that lay in the paths of our
young and innocent. We should all be ashamed when we are to think that
it won't happen to us, to our kind.
Harrison Palmer will have to face the consequences of his action or lack
of action but so should those that poured his drink, or poured the drink
for his best friend Harper Williams. It is no doubt that had the young
Eagle Scout been aware of the deadly event about to befall him, he would
have steered clear of the peril that fate lay ahead for them both. Yet
something had to cloud even this Eagle Scout's judgement as well as that
of his friend. The alcohol, illegally served to both young Harper Williams
and Harrison Palmer just prior to the accident, is the true culprit in
this tragedy. When we understand that, we will understand the opportunity
we have before us to make a change in the laws, to enforce the laws and
to uphold the laws. But when a legal system prevents law enforcement from
entering the private clubs to enforce the drinking laws, little can be
done. Had an officer been in the club or even been allowed into the club
that reportedly served a large crowd of underage kids, including Williams
and Palmer who knows, they might not have been served, the bar may have
been closed to those under 21.
GEORGE EDWARD WHEATLY JR. OF BEAUFORT KILLS GIRL IN DRUNK DRIVING WRECK. GETS 3 YEARS AND NINE MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON. Wheatly is the grandson of well-known Beaufort attorney Claud Wheatly.
Overhead view of accident
site with illustrations to aid in understanding the action of the vehicle.
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