Hey it's a Wisconsin thing, I appreciate the comparison to Krupa as well. I'm from Janesville (I know it sounds tough) an hour north of Chicago, but I'm not sure about musicman. Either way, I will shut up now.

No no it was just a joke.

And Keith is from Wausau.

Wausau. Dead center of the state.

I think it's a common misconception for adults to find the current generation of youth to be a wasted generation.

You can look back in time all the way down to the 1920s where there is news article after news article calling the current generation 'lost.'

I don't think you're wrong, but at the same time I think things in your mind are a bit skewed.

People today hold the generation of the 1930s as a group of heroes. They fought through the Great Depresssion, they were champions in WW2, they created the can-do spirit and family stability that America is (or was) known for, and is referred to by some as the greatest generation to date.

But the adults of the time referred to the youth as the 'lost generation.'

To look at the 1930s press, scholarly assessments, and official declarations, never had young people been so violent, mentally disarrayed, drugged, lazy, promiscuous, criminal, and hopeless.
Which is exactly what you think the current situation is.

You have to realize that a lot of things are changing.

We're getting out of a war across seas.
Our economy is terrible.
There is a fight for total human equality.

While things make look poor to you, there is quite a bit going on and we need the youth of today to fight for the things they believe in as they are our tomorrow.

Most of today's youth can't even SPELL the word "tomorrow", much less be trusted with it.

And in that WWII generation WAS the best generation, thus far.

Good post. I have a 19 year old son and 23 year old daughter. I just don't see the backbone and toughness in them that I had at their age, of course my dad said the same thing about me I'm sure.

I always thought it was Warsaw..

There is no "r" in Wausau.

Hard to misspell tomorrow when there is a big red line underneath it. lol

Bah! Who needs a red line? We didn't have those when I went to school.

Not until the teacher got hold of the paper, anyway.

Teacher?

Oh, YEAH!! Those were those people who TAUGHT us things!! I remember them!!

I think this is a great post, very well thought out!! I do love the sociological view and I do believe it!!

I sometimes think that my generation..."the Baby Boomers"...lost sight of things. Not all of us, yet it seems like 'we' created a mess.

I don't know if I would say that MOST of today's youth cannot spell tomorrow...maybe so...yet, it was the Baby Boomers who have made policy for the last how many years?

and the "inner city" was created when all the middle class 'white' folk pulled out and took the tax base with them...which paid for the school system...

Our YOUTH is created by the generation who raised them...take a look around...the baby boomers can be separated out into a couple of groups...the first few years were pretty 'conservative' parents...the later years...well, look around you...

I think that we need to do something...other than just put the youth of today down...they are going to control our purse strings...

so, people need to take some action to assure that the generation of today and tomorrow are able to do so!!

Taking the action is one thing. Them ACCEPTING the action is entirely another.

Oh god

I love Bowie

Ran away from home in 77. Hitch hiked from ny to jersey to see him
As ziggy!!

Yeah, that was back in the day when they could actually teach because they didn't have to spend their days catering to this group and that kid and defending themselves from these fluffed-up charges ("My 230-pound eighth grader got suspended just because he backed his 110 pound teacher up into the corner and threatened to throttle her! She obviously has it out for my child") and such.

This is something I wrote a few years back, definitely think its relevant.


The American Dream

America. Land of opportunity. A country so rich that the streets are paved with gold. A world where anyone can achieve greatness. Does any of this sound familiar? Our ancestors came here with the hopes of discovering a better life. Regardless of why they came or whether they succeeded, they were all willing to travel hundreds, thousands of miles to pursue the opportunity for a better life. Not a guarantee. Not a promise. An opportunity. This means that they wanted to work for their dreams. This means that they were not solely pursuing financial gain, but career and
family possibilities that were not available to them in their respective homelands.
You know what the American dream is now? Winning the lottery. Inheritance. High yield stocks. Getting the most amount of profit for the least amount of work. Crime is as commonplace in high society as it is on the streets. Our politicians sell their influence to the highest bidder. Our popular artists are determined as much by good marketing as by any actual talent. Quite simply, the American Dream is to make as much profit as possible with the least effort. And if you can take advantage of someone along the road to riches, by all means, do so.
Now I am admittedly young, cynical, and have a limited scope of the world we live in. I have little to no direct experience with the symptoms I feel are plauging this country. But I have enormous exposure to the best reflection of our society you could ever have. It's children. Think about it: Children do not learn from the words and intentions of the world around them, only it's actions. It's safe to say that just about everyone a small boy or girl meets will have an effect on their development, no matter how marginal that effect may be. So when I see the way my friends and peers act, I see a window into the heart of this country, and I am very concerned by what I see.
The fact is that the ambition of our youth to better themselves is waning. There are more dropouts, despite educational standards being lowered to prevent this. There are more teenage pregnancies regardless of safe sex campaigns impressed upon us from well before puberty. There are more drug users, although we're warned against drug use even before the
repercussions of unsafe sex. And the teen suicide rates continue to increase, as well, for any number of reasons.
You want to know why this is? Because my generation looks at it's elders and sees nothing worth living for. Much of our people have given up on what they could have been in favor of what they have to be. While a lot of us could have continued to pursue our wants, most of us have decided that it is too difficult to achieve these goals while attaining our needs. So instead,
we become career slaves. Working however many hours it takes to buy that new car, or house, or game, etc.. But that doesn't work. If it did, we wouldn't be needing new versions of the same basic products all the time.
The reason why we can never have enough stuff or be happy at our menial jobs is that to deny your passions is to deny who you are. Instead of trying to be happy, we're trying to make money. In case you forgot, the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independance says that all people have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Not wealth. Happiness. This is an ideal that our forefathers were willing to die for. This is the reason why so many people immigrated here from foreign lands. Not to get rich quick, but to be happy!
And thus I come to the heart of the problem. We have forgotten what it means to be American. Instead of trying to achieve a better life, we're trying to achieve greater wealth. People that might have been artists or shop owners or inventors simply release their aspirations to the winds, to pursue jobs as telemarketers, secretaries, or whatever else they can do to make ends meet. The worst part of it is, while many of these people lead happy lives, they are viewed as failures because of the absence of an extra zero at the end of their paychecks.
We need to rekindle the spark of life that once raged through our people. We need to reclaim our dreams and ambitions, to save ourselves from lives of mediocrity.We need to revive the spirit that once defined our very way of life, and made us the best country in the world. We need to start thinking with our hearts from time to time, instead of always thinking with our
wallets. And we need to believe that happiness is worth whatever cost comes with it. Otherwise, what's the point of living at all?

Outstanding!!

Yes!! BRAVO!!

another fantastic post by a 23 year old!!


Your generation has had some role models, eh?

The two posts by Drothrock and by Euphoric_Dissonance give me a hope...a hope that there are indeed intelligent survivors of this very material world!!

BRAVO!!!