The Kids Are Not Alright

 

"I don't mind 
Other guys dancing with my girl
That's fine
I know them all pretty well.

But I know sometimes I must get out in the light
Better leave her behind
With the kids, they're alright
The kids are alright.

The kids are alright.

The kids are alright.

The Who from their their 1965 album, "My Generation."

I've always enjoyed The Who, and in particular Pete Townshend's lyrics.  Their songs had a harder edge to them than the Beatles and The Rolling Stones.  If you liked power chords, great drumming and "fighting" lyrics then you -- like me -- listened to The Who.     

Townshend's song "The Kids Are Alright" was about taking chances.  He admitted years later when he wrote the song, he was nothing but a kid, trying to figure out life through all the things going on.  He was practicing with his life -- like all rebellious youth -- taking chances in music, politics and marriage, not to mention drugs and booze.  There was almost nothing that he didn't risk trying. 

Like Pete Townshend, every generation has its own things to figure out.  The sixties were all about drugs, sex, war and authority.  It was a time of transformational change to society (sound familiar?)

Today, our kids (I'm referring to anyone under 30 years old) are messed up in ways that have me worrying about their future, not to mention my own.  Instead of learning basics in school, they are learning about equity, discrimination, COVID and their mental health is suffering.  BIG time.

Occasionally, they worry about Madonna's younger look, but quickly see the error of their ways.  Even this 65-year-old knows if you undergo a facelift, brow life and eyelid surgery, you might end up looking like Marilyn Manson. 

So how did society's youth go from being their own person -- and suspicious of government authority -- to embracing Big Brother and wanting everything to have the same outcome?  How did classes on community organizing and protesting inequality replace basic math and writing in high school?

 

It would be great if these harmful ideas would fade like bad acne, but today's students carry them into young adulthood and from school to the workplace.  Instead of outgrowing these misguided beliefs, they embrace them and like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," infect co-workers into supporting things like critical race theory, vaccine equity, drag shows and global warming hysteria.  Every year more and more of them graduate from college and join the ranks of newly employed woksters.

Instead of slapping these people into submission, the corporate world goes along -- they fear being cancelled by media critics or the Twitter-verse, and in some cases even agree with them.  Easy points can be earned by throwing a million dollars at Black Lives Matter or by allowing transgender spoke people sell their product.  COVID and global warming hysteria allowed companies to rake in millions more by working with government agencies promoting woke ideology.

But getting back to our young "skulls full of mush," (we miss you Rush).  Our children today are in trouble for many reasons, but primarily because of what they are being taught.  COVID shutdowns didn't help.

I think we've all heard reports coming out of our schools that students aren't leaning math, reading and science.  Here's proof of the damage done to our children when they shut the schools:

In 55 Chicago public schools, no students were reported proficient in either math or reading.  There were 22 schools who had no students who could read at grade level and another 33 schools claimed no students could perform math at grade level.  Statewide, there were 53 schools that reported no students proficient in math and another 30 schools reported zero students could read at grade level.

Kids starting Kindergarten are being taught how to understand their gender identities, as well as identify different kinds of family structures, including single-parent, grandparent-headed, multiracial and LGBTQ+.   First graders currently learn to to identify symbols and traditions associated with the USA, like the Pledge of Allegiance.  That is being scrapped in favor of leaning "how to work together."  Third graders discuss the "importance of affirming spaces."  Apparently those are safe places for people to express their identities."  Fourth graders will learn about the importance of the year 1619, while fifth graders get to study the rise of "queer culture.  And finally sixth graders are asked to "consider who is harmed by border policies and racism."  In seventh and eight grades, students will learn about the evils of "European colonizers,"  George Washington's "legacy as an enslaver," and the "rise of white supremacists."

Is there any doubt about how and why our children are not doing well?

I play basketball with a professor who missed a few games last year because he was at a treatment center with his young daughter who was suffering from depression and anxiety.  Today, when I ask him how she is doing, he says she is still struggling.  Is there any question as to why?  Children are being told the earth is doomed because of global warming, if they call America home, they live in a racist, sexist and unjust country, and social media force them to compare themselves to unrealistic standards.

Children in college aren't any different than middle and high school students -- only more adult and more radicalized.

I am an avid follower of "The College Fix" which is a conservative website devoted to improving campus media.  Its purpose is to support young people who are exploring a career in journalism.  So, every day there are stories on indoctrination, attacks on free society and messed up views on sex and gender.

Here is an example of what kids are being taught on campus.  It's insane:

"Susan Stryker, a male-to-female transgender professor at the University of Arizona, revealed the general thrust and tone of transgender education.  At a recent speech, he described his work as "a secular sermon that unabashedly advocates embracing a disruptive and refigurative genderqueer or transgender power as a spiritual resource for social and environmental transformation."   

Don't you love the gobbledygook these  people use?  After a while you just give up trying to follow along.

In a companion essay, he compares himself to the monster in Frankenstein.  "My transsexual body is a technological construction that represents a war against Western society.  I am a transexual, and therefore I am a monster", and destined to channel my "rage and revenge" against traditional family values and against the "hegemonic oppression" of nature itself.  I don't know what that means, but it sounds like he hates traditional families, like mine.

It's hard to see how this can end well.

Lately, colleges are making the news with students supporting Hamas/Palestinians and the war against Israel.  Protests -- the bedrock of so many well off, white female students today -- are growing and facing little pushback from college administrators or teacher unions.  It's the donors who threaten to pull their financial support that are driving arrests at Ivy league schools like Harvard, Columbia and Yale.  Not the administrators and professors who often times are camping out with the protesters.  

Sometimes I think these radicals and their students just miss the good old days of Vietnam and Martin Luther King protests.

But it is concerning that these college kids -- I can't call them adults -- find more value in protesting than they do learning something about a career that will put money on the table.  A future complaining about the injustices of life leaves little time for having a family, buying a house or working towards upward mobility.  Where do they think they will be ten, much less thirty, years from now when mommy and daddy are not paying the bills?  Where will America be in ten years?

Is it too late for kids today?  Are they destined for anti-depressant drugs and group therapy?  Probably.  I don't see how you can change someone's views on Israel if ground zero is "death to Israel," "death to America!"

So, I'm pretty certain we've lost the kids already in school and going into the work force.  If you can't even get them out of their safe spaces, how are you going to change anything?  Climate change?  Transgendered sports?  Gay marriage?  Racism?  Black Lives Matter?  All off the table.  Want to see their eyes roll back into their heads?  Mention Donald Trump and -- unless you're wearing a garbage bag for protection -- get out of the way.

And as they grow older and try to reconcile their views with reality, I think a lot of people are going to be paying huge sums to psychologists and psychiatrists.  What a future -- no wonder they are depressed.

People have argued that we shouldn't send our kids to public schools anymore.  Keeping them home and sending them to technical schools where students actually learn how things work have been suggested.    Notice how technical schools never make the news with protests and blocking streets or cancelling speakers?  Isn't it amazing how learning how to replace a carburetor doesn't lead to gender confusion?  Or providing nursing care to someone in need focuses your attention on the illness, not their skin color.

So where do we go from here?   Whatever we do to change its course, I know this much.  It's going to take time.  There's NO quick fix to what is wrong with our youth.

As mentioned earlier, an emphasis on jobs, not a 4 year women's study degree seems to be a good start.  Not only does it address bigger issues like the lack of plumbers, welders and electricians, but it also keeps a lot of the anti-American rhetoric at bay.  A restructured education system will take a long time, but as we say in the financial planning world --  today is the best day to start.

Let's hope the diversity, equity and inclusion charade runs it's course and future generations can realize the American Dream and appreciate the good things we have given the world.  To feel proud of America instead of shame or regret.  Remind our children that America offers the best hope for them.  Encourage and help them realize that family, not isolation, will bring them the most happiness and joy.  And family begins with a husband or wife and children.

We need God in our lives again.  On its own it doesn't guarantee anything, but a reminder that there is a purpose in life, something bigger than ourselves and a purpose not centered around social media or someone's identity would bring humility and grace to a young person's life. 

Don't let media control your life.  Social media is an empty vessel that bring temporary joy, at best.  At its worse, it desensitizes what it means to be human.  There can be no substitution for getting out of the house, talking with neighbors and friends, or finding someone special to share your life.  But don't forget corporations and politicians have a financial interest in keeping us divided and at each other's throats.

I'm an optimist, partly because I find motivation from the promise of good things in life.  I can't believe people want to be miserable -- it's not natural.   I want our children to laugh and enjoy life, to turn away from the Biden doctrine that encourages shouting and disagreement.  Our current downward projection will grind itself to dust.  You can only go so deep before you will want to see daylight.  

Maybe it will be like the song by Pete Townshend -- every generation has its own things to figure out.  Sooner or later, they will realize --

Men can't become women.

BLM is reverse racism.

School debt needs to be repaid.

Climate has been changing for ever, and always will.

No gun zones encourage violence.

A.I. sex is as unfulfilling as porn.

Go woke, go broke.

.

Dancing to the Darkness

"I am honestly scared for the future of this country, and am seriously considering moving to a different country..."

"This country is doomed!"

"I am so disgusted, sad and disturbed by the results tonight.  I am afraid and sad for the future of our country... too many stupid people."

"Our country is now in serious and unprecedented trouble... like never before."

"I can't stop crying... you people are idiots."

"America died."

These are posts by people who reacted strongly to election results that did not go the way they had hoped.  The election had been long and vicious, guaranteeing the country would remain divided.  Having invested so much into the campaign and believing the end was near if their candidate didn't win, voters were left despondent and desperate.

If you didn't know better, you would have thought they were posted by people reacting to Trump's victory on November 8th.  But they're not.  They're from Tuesday, November 6, 2012.  The night that Obama was sent back to Washington D.C. for his second term as President of the United States. 

I'm sure I was telling my wife that America was finished back in 2012.  That everything that made America great was under assault when Ohio's 20 electoral votes went to Obama, and I, in frustration, turned off the television and reached for the sleeping pills.  We had hoped that this great country had seen through the "historic" BS of 2008 and realized its mistake -  Omabacare, higher taxes and a struggling economy.  Surely, voters would respond to Romney's message and turn leadership of the country over to a businessman with experience.  But no.

So four long years later, the shoe is on the other foot.  You can say some things never change.  Every year, we are led to believe candidate A is the only reasonable choice.  Candidate B will bring an end to our way of life as we know it.  However, despite predictions, the sun always rises the next day --  and the doom and gloom slowly dissipate like the smell of cooked liver and onions from two days ago.  

Or does it?

The one thought that NEVER occurred to me was to riot in the streets and protest the legitimate results of an election that clearly indicated a winner.  Obama was not my candidate, but the people had spoken and I was forced to accept the fact that for one night in 2012, more people who saw things differently voted for someone else.  And that's all that mattered.

Maybe being in sales prepared me for failure.  Or maybe being a Badger fan while going to college in Madison prepared me for some difficult times (fortunately, Barry Alvarez's arrival was just a short six years away). 

So what's different now?  What's so hard about accepting our nation's first female nominee for president being beaten by some brash New York pussy grabber?  Why claim "Trump is not MY president" when  the election clearly says he is?  What's driving young people into the streets and out of the classroom?

First, my upbringing didn't evolve around social issues like gay marriage, racial injustice and global warming.  Youth today have been led to believe those things are the most important issues in America.  Not freedom from terrorism, not better jobs that pay well, and not protections given to us under the U.S. Constitution.  And it doesn't seem like Chemistry, Math or Economics are very important either.

Young people today have been attending the College of Social Justice since kindergarten.  Some are being taught to question the fairness of race relations, while ignoring law and order.  It's surprising how important climate change is to them, to the degree that they will not listen to reason (no amount of facts will change it).  Captain Planet has completely, and I mean completely, obliterated rational thought on the impact of carbon burning fuels on good ol' Mother Earth.  

Their passion for global warming can only be matched by their defense of gay and transsexual lifestyles.  Being a heterosexual male who is crazy about the opposite sex, I can only imagine why.  Perhaps they have been told we shouldn't be judgmental, or that they want the same things we all do.  That's fine, but being forced to accept a lifestyle that is counter to what my religion teaches is a little hard to handle.  Worse, I'm being told that I'm a bad person if I don't agree.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Despite the small number of gays actually in our country, you would think heterosexuals were in the minority.  Within a span of a few months, our country chucked thousands of years of tradition and declared the old definition of marriage was dead.  As I said before, if you disagreed, you are attacked and made to walk the "walk of shame."  Ask the bakers in Oregon, or the state legislatures in Indiana and North Carolina how it feels to be on the wrong side of the LGBT coalition.

Social issues like gay marriage led our youth into believing other archaic traditions would fall next.  Eight years of Obama's "change" had many believing the country was going to break that glass ceiling and elect Hillary as the first female president in November.  The social issues tsunami would not be denied!

And then November 8th happened.  Oops...



Trump's election is more than just the defeat of Hillary.

For the first time in at least 8 years, his coming presidency is a real challenge to these social issues that have been gaining ground.  So should we be surprised that their reaction is one of fearful overreaction?  Or rage?  Of course not -- and yet I am.

For many college students, this is their first election and first encounter with the unexpected twists and turns of a presidential election.   Compounding the problem is how students don't have the necessary coping skills to deal with results that fall outside of their self-imposed safe zones.

For most schools and universities,  failure is a dirty a word.  As dirty as those found in MAD Magazine and National Lampoon in the 60's and 70's.  Our teaching institutions -- ironically -- have failed our children in preparing them for real life.

Early on, awarding participation awards to kids in sports and other competitions was thought of as a way to strengthen their self esteem.  Making winners out of losers was supposed to foster success, help them engage in activities, deal with challenges and interact with others.  Self esteem was the genie in a bottle -- providing the building blocks for school success, and a firm foundation for future learning.

I never bought into self esteem; that's not to say that you shouldn't feel good about yourself.  Because we are all much more productive when feeling confident.  The trouble is too many people are doing nothing to warrant that feeling.  Feeling good about yourself -- or feeling like you are on the right side of an argument -- needs to be earned or it's a hollow victory.

I think Vince Lombardi once said, "It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up again."  Participation ribbons aren't teaching our children anything.  Take it from Vince -- failure is the greatest teacher of success and it's a lesson that needs to be taught again and again, and students need to experience it every time they are wrong.

Ooooh, but that's so harsh!

Today's students don't know how to confront opposing opinions.   Videos I have seen -- students screaming at each other during class meetings and in response to guest speakers who were invited to speak on campus -- are embarrassing.  Our school's adherence to the PC culture has left students shell-shocked whenever they hear someone challenge their collective views of social justice and fairness.

Since they were first exposed by their kindergarten teacher through readings of "Tango Makes Three," and later through required viewings of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" for science class,  students have been molded into a pajama-wearing, identity-driven, racially-sensitive student body that schools have been able to control.  Political correctness is being used to silence dissent and debate on campus.  No longer institutions of greater learning, they have become an experiment in safe zones, balloons, play-do and puppies.  Instead of graduating students capable of dealing with real world issues, this hyper-sensitivity is teaching students to claim grievous harm in nearly any circumstance and after any affront. 

Examples abound --

Feminism has led women to expect free contraception.  Any challenge to it is an attack on women's health.

Atheism has forced schools to ban God from sporting events, and restricted certain clothing or jewelry from campus.  Religious references are considered unconstitutional and a violation to the separation between church and state.

Racism I can be found on colleges where black students are forced to live with unreasonable expectations -- like going to class, learning how to speak and write, and pass a class.  This leads to attaching "white privilege" to everything from test results and course studies, to -- God help us -- walking past a campus building "that was built on the backs of black people".

According to Ebony McGee, who is an assistant professor of diversity and urban schooling at Vanderbilt, all of these politically incorrect assaults have students feeling "anxiety, stress, depression and thoughts of suicide, as well as a host of physical ailments like hair loss, diabetes and heart disease."

And here I thought it had something to do with passing exams and graduating.



Where do we go from here?

I'd say go back to the basics, but I honestly don't see the culture on campus changing.  Teachers will continue to berate students who voted for Trump, and students will continue to search for equality where none exists.  If anything, teachers have lost control of the students, and there is no putting THAT horse back in the barn.  It's like the bad guys on Walking Dead coming face to face with the zombies that they have kept locked in the basement.  Through some unforeseen development, the bad guys fall victim to the very monsters they helped create.

It's time we give up on our feelings and start looking at what we know.  The nonsense that can be found at Google where you can indicate how you are feeling highlights one of the problems we face.

Our election has uncorked the bottle that held many people in check.  It's not just the college aged kids protesting in the streets, of course.  Paid, professional protesters like those bused in to Fergusson, MO and Madison, WI continue to love the media attention and spotlight.  And the money is good.   Anarchists have existed for decades and they aren't going away either.  Like Mystique from the X-Men movies, the One Percent protests have mutated into Black Lives Matter, who will evolve into something when another protest is needed.

But it's a good bet that they all share something in common.  Somewhere along the line, they learned everything they needed from a sociology class like the one on heterogeneous team-building (whatever that is) found in the Urban Studies 101 section of Race Relations.

It concerns me that these young protesters are excelling at heterogeneous team-building, but failing in math, reading and science.  Our country is on average with -- or below --  the rest of the world in test results from those three subjects.  How do we correct institutions that are graduating classes with students closer to Lebanon and the Dominican Republic than to students from Singapore?  Our universities have become a joke to the rest of the world.

Despite giving out coloring books and bubbles to 20-year-old students in designated safe places, it is reported that forty-four percent of America's college students are suffering from depression.  The social experiment that began with self-esteem is failing our students, and there doesn't seem to be any answer except more coddling and ways to avoid feeling bad.

Kids, it's time to put away the coloring books and pick up one on conflict resolution.