Egregious acts spark doubt for future
Nate Weeks is a member of the broadcast team.
April 28, 2016
“We cannot always build a future for our youth, but we can always build our youth for the future.” – Franklin Roosevelt
I will never stop praising such ideals as described in the previously stated quote. I passionately believe that while what the adults of this world do may be out of our hands, we still have the power to lay an educated and respectful foundation for the youth of today … soon to be the adults of tomorrow.
However, my mind runs rapidly with doubt towards what kind of youth we are building up in our society. This doubt is a flame that was lit by a repetition of sparks. Students breaking school windows as a “joke.” Students vandalizing other students’ cars or other personal property. Students verbally harassing a close friend of mine in the halls, yet being excused from any judgment because”kids will be kids.”
Or more recently, students tearing up a school garden that was a project seeded by the hard work and determination of some of the few students who truly give me hope for the future.
This collection of sparks, this collection of offenses … it causes me to ache both with anger and with despair: anger toward the offenders themselves in that they lack self control or pursue this corrupted idea of fun; and despair that our country, our state and our city all accept the social mentality that produced the ideals of fun in our students.
I refuse to be illogical and solely blame the students for having the mindset they have, yet I also refuse to take the asinine idea that the sole responsibility lies with the culture or society that we grow up in. Both are at fault.
In terms of the fault of the students themselves, it seems to boil down to personal philosophical beliefs. I believe that you are not completely who you are raised to be. I believe that all of us possess a greater sense of morality and right or wrong due to our being created in the image of the Divine (again, this is up to your personal belief). Regardless of your religious belief, it is ludicrous to state that the way you are right damns you to either right or wrong actions for the rest of your life. You have the power to change.
In terms of the society, I believe that we cut ourselves far too much slack. There is a reason we have been dubbed “the entitled generation.” So many of us have been blessed with families who can provide a comfortable and mostly worry-free childhood for their children.
But we mistakenly use this blessing to remove ideals of hard work, values of reward, and general respect from a large proportion of our youth. And when we finally do start to teach our youth the value of working and reaping the harvest, it’s in the mentality that their objective is to sustain themselves, provide wealth for themselves, and be successful for themselves.
My generation is being raised into a whirlpool of selfishness and lack of respect for anyone that does not provide them with personal gain.
“It’s just me myself and I, solo ride until I die…”
You know when a song whose hook states the lyrics above is No. 1 on the charts for over a week, there might be a problem in our mentality.
Alas, we are not without hope. The farcical thing about our dilemma is that the solution is not that complex. Maybe, if we gained a sense of respect for our own possessions, then windows would not be broken and cars would still be clean and intact. Maybe if our schooling systems possessed a pathway to implement awareness to different students’ social and mental situations, my friends would not contemplate the hope of continuing to fight for tomorrow.
Maybe, if all of our students held the mentality of hard work, hope, and a vision for future progress that the Humans of SV had in their garden (and still had in repairing it), we would be building up youth with unshakable foundations … instead of castles in sifting sand.
