We often hear that today’s young people do not know how good they have it. Have no understanding of want, no respect, no interest. They have it too easy, they are lazy and dodge work. They are unfit, sit around all day playing video games.
We have all heard this more than once, probably even said it ourselves. Today’s youth have no idea about life like we once did. We learned the hard way. Our parents taught us manners and right from wrong, punished us when we did wrong.
Today many elderly people would echo these sentiments, claiming today's youth don’t know what hardship is. Yet strangely in the 1930s this is precisely what people said about the youth of that time. They were lazy, playboys, wasters, entitled and had no respect for their elders. Yet it was these same lazy youth that became the few in the Battle of Britain, fought in Battle of the Atlantic, defeated Rommel in North Africa and marched into Berlin.
Perhaps we might give some credit to our young people. They are the future, they are the protesters, they are the ones calling out polluters, corrupt politicians and corporations. They will shape the future, not us, we are tired and set in our ways. Today’s youth see the mess we have left them, the debt, the pollution and government corruption. They are left with the problems we created and they are the ones left to repair the damage. The future decisions are theirs, and I believe like the youth of the 1930s they will prevail.
F. Ben Rodgers,
Abram-Village
