Skateboarding: not the devil's work. (voices).

MUSKEGO, WISCONSIN -- Hello, everyone. Meet your everyday skateboarder.

Aside from the fact that I'm a skater, here's some stuff about me: I am a guitar player in a rock band, and I work at the local supermarket, Pick 'n Save. I am also on the teen advisory board of the city council.

My goal is to get a public skate park built. If kids want to play basketball or football, the city provides them with a court or a field. So I say, why not provide a skate park?

I also want to make "skate park" a word that doesn't sound negative. Many people hear it and picture a place where destructive delinquents and stoned slackers hang out.

I would like to know why skateboarders are stereotyped this way when most of us are good citizens. Just because some of us spike our hair or listen to odd music is not a good reason to look down on us. Sit down and think who the skaters are in your town. They may be your brother or sister or neighbor, or in my case, the friendly bagger at your local food market.

One time, I bagged groceries for a kind old lady at Pick 'n Save. I walked her out to her car, then helped her put everything into the trunk. She told me what a nice young man I was.

A week later, I saw this same lady in the library parking lot, currently the best place in town for skaters who've been banned from everywhere else. This time, I didn't have a tie and a Pick 'n Save apron on--I had my skateboard. Thinking that she would just say hi, I kindly greeted her. To my surprise, she said that what I was doing was immoral and illegal. She even said I was sinning against God.

After she told me what a bad person I was, I realized how skateboarders are so misunderstood. I mean, she changed her opinion of me because of a skateboard.

So I'm working to get plans for a skate park approved. I hope to put out a positive image of skateboarding, bring the sport out of the dark and into the light. It would be great to have a society where skaters, cops, businessmen--and even the lady from the grocery store--can all get along.

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