Teenagers

I know close to nothing about teenagers and, being a cranky, never-married man of around sixty who never had children, I usually assume the worst. You know: Their clothes are awful, they have no values, they eat nothing but junk and their music? It's just noise.
But some recent events have proved heartening to me. The picture above is of the front page of my home city's main newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer. It was published March 15, 2018, and is of school kids demonstrating in favor of gun control following the Stockton, Florida, school shooting.
After looking at it for several seconds, what struck me most was this: None of these kids is staring at his or her smart phone screen. You do see one kid in the back using some kind of device, but it looks like it might be what I call a legitimate camera. One out of that many is a low number.
Whatever you may think about the issue that drew them there, you have to take heart in that they were fully engaged in it and were there to try to make a difference. Yes, I'm sure a few of them were out for getting social media approval, but from what I've seen and heard of high schoolers since the Florida school shooting, many of today's teenagers are articulate and thoughtful.

Photo Day for the Loser

Sometimes his camera sits in his left front pocket for days without taking a single shot, spurned and ignored but for its weight. Today, the Complete and Total Loser took several photographs. 

The first was of the alien he's mentioned before, the man who fills crossword puzzles with odd circles instead of letters, yet seems to be following the clues. This time it was on the morning train. Again, it was the quiet car, so the Loser didn't ask him what he was doing. That would have been impolite and awkward anyway.

Later, there was a small fire in the kitchen of the 85-year-old building the Loser works in, so the building was evacuated. He, his coworkers and many members of the public spent several happy minutes in an early spring day's unseasonable warmth. 

The Loser dined with a woman, a friend he doesn't know well but seems to get along with. As they parted, the woman bumped into a friend who asked her to join her and her dharma group's gathering to watch their monk dump the sand used in a recent mandala into the city's river. The woman invited the Loser to join them, but he's not part of that group so he sought high ground and photographed the event instead. (The bike in the center is the woman's.)

A dharma group watches their monk pour sand used in a recent mandala into a river.

Shortly afterward, the Loser headed for his train home. He encountered a protest that seemed to be designed to draw attention to the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager shot to death by a townwatch participant. The Loser is a failed journalist. During his reporting days he often attended news events where he saw newscasters for television:

A newscaster and her protege interview a protester.

He also would see camera operators get background images and color for the story:

A television camera operator shoots video of a man playing a plastic trombone at a rally on behalf of Trayvon Martin.

And keeping an eye on many public gatherings are the police, of course:

A police officer keeps an eye on an orderly gathering, just in case.

After this, the Loser boarded his train and napped on the way to the suburbs.