Over the last few years, there’s been a spate of shootings in London involving young teenagers (not to mention the tragic case a while ago of Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 32 students & teachers in Virginia, USA).

Why is this? When I was a kid, the only thoughts I had were whether I had enough pocket money to buy a Curley Wurley.

Summer holidays were spent reading books, playing football in the park, and generally hanging out with mates.

I certainly wasn’t thinking about acquiring a gun & blowing someone away.
Disputes were settled with discussion, or as a last result, you had a fight – which never lasted that long.
Nowadays, we have students in the Uk bringing knives to school, and settling their beefs by stabbing someone.

Can’t quite get my head around this mentality.
I’m not even that old, but in conversation with various friends, we marvel at the amount of kids still hanging around on the street at 11 at night – where are your parents?

I shake my head at some of the young girls nowadays strutting around in skirts so short, you no longer need to use your imagination – and your parents let you leave the house like that?

Top of my shake my head moments are kids who cuss out their parents.
I’ve never sworn at my mum, let alone shouted at her.
When I was a youngster, if you were taken to a relatives house, you behaved yourself, and were polite.

All this in some cases seems to have gone out of the window. Some kids now tell their parents how it’s going to be, what time they are coming back.

They have no qualms about telling their parents to fuck off, or even inflicting violence upon them. The mind boggles…

Copyright © Mark A. McPherson 2011.
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