To the Editor:
Many of us old-timers had a distinct advantage over the youth of today. We were able to combine the smarts of the streets with the smarts of the books – a one-two punch invaluable to survive in life.
The streets are just too dangerous now for our kids to romp and play unsupervised. Instead, parents must arrange playdates and search around for paid, organized activities where their kids may learn a few things about giving and taking.
Kids are taught about 911 before Mom and Pop. They are just inside too much after school, fully occupied with video game action. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were reading instead.
My surviving buddies and I maintain that combining what we learned on the streets as kids when combined with what we learned in school was irreplaceable to making it in life.
Today, a kid on the street alone is much more likely to encounter a drug dealer than a cop on the beat. What a shame it is that with all this so-called progress we have made as a nation, we have been stupid enough to allow the streets that were playgrounds for our youth to fall into killing groups.
