DEAR ABBY: I read your letter from Luke, the teen-aged skateboarder who feels skateboarders get a bad rap from adults. I'm a television news anchor and thought you and Luke would appreciate the following story. It led our evening newscast recently.
Several teen-agers were skateboarding in downtown Abilene when they heard screaming. They found an elderly woman who had been attacked. A thief had knocked her down and stolen her purse.
The skaters split up. Some took off after the thief. Some stayed to help the woman, and others skateboarded off to summon the police. When the teens found the thief hiding in a parking garage, he took off again -- and they chased him on their boards until police arrived and arrested him. The elderly woman got her purse back, along with the contents.
These teens are members of a skateboarding stunt team that is part of a local church youth group. They spend their summers on the road, putting on great shows, then talking to other teens about leading moral lives.
Let's hear it for today's teens. With or without skateboards, most of them are on the right track. -- LOREN HALIFAX, KTAB-TV, ABILENE, TEXAS
DEAR LOREN: Thanks for an upper of a letter. It's the first time I've heard that the wheels of justice were attached to a skateboard.