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sirfun
Michael Peterson status
Reged: 04/26/08
Posts: 1883
Loc: U.S.A.
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Re: (damn)
07/02/10 07:20 PM
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http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/96682394.html
Opinion
E-mail
James E. Causey
I have a confession. I'm 40 years old and I can't swim.
Not only can't I swim, I start to hyperventilate whenever I get into a pool and the water comes up to my neck.
You see, when I was 6, I nearly drowned while on a family vacation in Wisconsin Dells. While I was splashing in an inner tube in the shallow end of water, a teenage girl thought it would be funny to pull me out to the deeper end. When she snatched the inner tube away, I sank like a rock in about 8 feet of water.
A lifeguard rescued and resuscitated me. After that experience, I never overcame my fear.
As an adult, I've taken three adult swim classes, but when the water creeps up to my chest - I panic. I fail.
I'm not proud of my fear but for the most part I've managed to avoid stressful situations. At pool parties, my excuse is usually that I forgot my bathing suit or the chlorine burns my eyes.
My parents can't swim either; nor can most of my friends.
But I'm going to set a goal today. I will learn how to swim before year's end. I owe that to myself. I hope I can motivate others who can't swim to take on this challenge as well. I will keep you posted on my progress in a future column.
But here's the thing: I'm not alone. And people are dying. Needlessly.
There have been four drownings in less than three weeks in our area.
With summer here, we know that a lot of kids will be going to the pools, lakes and lagoons, so it's important that they know how to swim, and to swim safely. The Boys & Girls Club of Milwaukee along with Milwaukee County needs to continue to offer affordable swimming lessons for those at most risk.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that drowning is the second leading cause of injury-related death among kids between the ages of 11 and 14. And black children are 2.3 times more likely to drown than their white peers.
Simply put, 64% of America's minority children can't swim a stroke. I have no confidence, given what we've experienced in drownings, that those stats are any better locally.
In the last three weeks: Kamonie Slade, 12, died after being pulled from Mauthe Lake, where he was attending his seventh-grade class trip on June 14; Myah Tijerina, 2, died in a hot tub at a Kenosha motel on June 12; Ron Edmonds, 15, drowned playing in a lake at a Franklin condominium complex with his friends on May 29; and authorities have called off their search for 9-year-old Sofia Khan, who fell from a kayak into Lake Michigan June 9 near Sheboygan.
Some of these victims knew how to swim - and I know that a 2-year-old in a hot tub is not likely a case of lack of swimming skills - but they all demonstrate the dangers posed by water and why we need to equip our children with the skills they need. One lesson: Swimming in an open body of water is different than swimming in an indoor pool. Lakes, rivers and streams are colder and more treacherous.
Even good swimmers' body temperatures can drop fast, making it more difficult for them to breathe. Their bodies can cramp up and they can quickly find themselves in trouble.
Learning what to do when you get in trouble in the water is just as important as learning the breaststroke, aquatics director Todd Jackson told me.
Jackson, a swimming instructor for 35 years, teaches kids swimming at Don & Sallie Davis Boys & Girls Club on the city's south side. He told me the main reason young people don't learn how to swim is that they are simply not exposed to water all that much. I know, this might sound strange when you consider that Milwaukee sits right next to the lake.
Swimming, which was once a Milwaukee Public Schools requirement in high school, is an elective in most schools today.
Even in the 1980s, some students found ways to get around the swimming requirement. Trust me, I know. In high school I, along with a number of my friends, managed to skip swimming.
Jackson told me that parents should accept some responsibility and sign their kids up for swimming lessons. He's right; with all the free and reduced-rate resources available today, there's really no excuse. I gained more confidence after watching a group of beginning swimmers at the Boys & Girls Club last week.
Intermediate swimmers practiced water safety in the deep end, as the beginners practiced floating and retrieving objects at the shallow end of the pool.
I'm going to need help to get over this fear, but swimming is a lifelong skill we all must master. Wish me luck.
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