I
recall the days of my youth when I knew it was time to go home by the
absence of the sun or presence of the moon! If I wanted to talk with
or play with friends, I went to their houses and knocked on their
doors, or I went to places where I'd expect them to be (usually the
ball-ground). We respected adults, authority, property, etc...
Well, we did get in to mischief, but nothing serious. We left the
U.S. back in 1975 to live in Turkey for two years (My father was in
the U.S. Air Force). In 1977 we moved to Germany and to Holland in
1981 where I started college at the Troy State University extension
campus. At the ripe old age of nineteen I left home and lived on my
own back in Germany as I waited for my flight back to the U.S. to
join the Air Force. In Turkey, we didn't have TV and our whole time
in Europe we didn't have phones. How in the world did we ever
survive? Well, my parents were my role models. Dad worked hard
and if anything was broken at the house, he would fix it. If we
didn't have the money to buy a new starter, he would rebuild the old
starter himself. He just did what needed to be done. He would wake
me up in the mornings and we'd work on a car, or on his airplane –
something! Mom kept a clean home and had my sister and me doing
chores – nothing grueling, but just stuff that needed to be done.
Mom made meals that would put Julia Childs to shame.
When I look at children /
young adults today, I see something very different. I still have one
child, no, adult, living in my home. I had to force him out of the
house to go get a job. I had to register him in college, because he
didn't do it, even though I set it all up and made it easy. All his
free time is dedicated to “VIDEO GAMES!” There it is, the crux
of this post! I can't say that I'm totally at fault as his parent,
because two out of four do not make video games their whole lives. I
asked my son, who was probably 21 at the time, “Hey, how about
mowing the lawn while I'm gone for the week?” To which, he
replied, “What's the criteria for knowing when the lawn should be
mowed.” Another time, I was out working under his car, because it
needed to be fixed. I went inside and saw him sitting all comfy
under a blanket watching morning cartoons (Twenty one years old!) I
asked him why not come out and learn something and see if you can
help fix YOUR car! He said he didn't want to know about cars and
just planned to take it to a shop whenever it needed to be fixed. So,
I quit working on it and told him to take it to the shop. On the way
there the timing belt broke. It cost him $1,200 that day and that
hurt him! I chuckled a little inside!
If this trouble was just
in my household, then no problem right? What if it is this way all
over the U.S. and world? The youth find more value in learning how
to play a three- buttoned guitar instead of a real one. They don't
interface anywhere but online and in role playing video games where
you can simulate just about anything! I can't tell my son anything
as he takes the opposite side of almost everything I am or like. I'm
Christian, so he's now atheist; I'm a software engineer, so he chose
anything but that. I try to stay open minded and realize that every
generation is different, but when does it start hurting a nation. I
read where there's not enough enrollment or interest in technology
fields to sustain the current infrastructure that we older employees
plan to leave behind. That's not good!
I was always comforted by
the idea that when he's out there, truly on his own, then the world
will teach him the lessons he needs to learn. You want to eat, work!
You want a car, work! Something's broke, fix it! But, darned my
luck! Over the last four years we've witnessed our U.S. Government
breast-feeding and burping our adult citizens. “There, there!”
they say. “We'll give you some of the other people's money because
they have too much and you don't have enough!” Or, “there,
there! You don't have to work, vote for us and you can stay home and
get more than you'd earn out there in the mean old workforce! That's
just a rumor that you can excel and succeed to bigger and better
rewards! Stay here where it's safe and we'll give you all you need!”
Somehow, I think my parents would now prefer the hippies of the 60s
over the gamer/slackers of today, and certainly over the gimme, gimme
zombies of tomorrow.
Stop communism and save
America, take a right the next chance you get!
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