Sunday, March 18, 2018

Teenagers

philadelphia inquirer photo
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.

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