Juanda Raymond

Sitting on my front porch, finally enjoying the cool breeze that has been missing for the last few days, I look across the street and notice my neighbor carrying packages from her car. Back and forth she goes while her healthy, energetic, teenage son is just sitting in the front room. IPod with headphones attached to his skull as usual.

I shake my head and think back to the times, during my youth, when kids were expected to assist parents and neighbors. Not anymore. This generation of youth expect to be ‘hand fed’ and taken care of without the need to ‘lift a finger’ in assistance. Why have the basic social graces escaped our youth? Has marketing played a role in this societal shift? Yes.

Every day messages that display this generation’s ‘microwave mentality’ have infiltrated the minds of the next generation. No need to work for what you want and learn by experience working through the ranks. Burger King’s 1973 slogan “Have it your way” has taken on a new meaning in 2011.

It took every fiber in my being to stay planted in my chair and not march across the street, grab that young man by his ear and watch him lug all of the bags into the house himself. It’s difficult to react, these days, because some folks would say that I was ‘out of line’ and should have let mom handle the situation. Well, I say, if the village is to assist in the rearing of these children into respectful, responsible citizens, we should feel obligated to step in to correct the situation.

Where do we go from here? Do we completely ignore the decline in our youths’ respect and responsibility or do we revert back to the adage ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ and pitch in and comment on things that we see are out of line?

Photograph Credit:
Sabrina Segal