What is wrong with our children ya'll

[Noble Work]

I want to talk for a minute with the going on's in the ATL.

For starters, I want to ask do you get sick when you turn on the news nowadays? Does the first five minutes seem like you at a wake? How about when you listen to the radio during those news breaks and special bullitens or what not....does that news depress you?

It has been so many senseless, meaningless crimes and murders taken part on behalf of young folk....teenagers in atlanta. Beatings, killings etc all done by kids who to me JUST started out in life. Well not even started out cause they still live with they moma. Ya'll understand right?

So I was listening to talk radio the other day and I heard a run down of just meaningless, thoughtless acts committed by kids. A family of three (including the mother) was jump on the other day by some 15-20 kids. From what was reported, it was all because of bullying. They called the group who done the beatings a gang or gang activity. Being a gang (in this case) is neither here nor there. The point is they jump on a mother and her teenage children.

Before that there was a group of kids (boys I think) robbing people coming down the side walk. So here comes this young man (21) years old getting off work a little after mid night, theyrobbed him also but they end up killing this young man!

So this is why I ask ya'll. What is going on with our kids these days. I have heard everything from there are gangs on our atlanta streets (which I don't doubt) to simply there are some hungry kids out here. Hungry not meaning greedy or "getting it in" I'm talking literally hungry like they don't have anything to eat.

So far I'd like to think I'm doing a fairly nice job rasing my three. My son (12) the oldest, I choose to stay on him. Not because of being mean or cause I'm hard but to Teach him. I stay on him cause I LOVE that kid ya'll and I want him to have direction and self respect and respecdt for others. I stay on my girls to 11 and 7. I'm not too hard on my 11 year old but I want her to know that she has a loving father IN the home. I know all of us didn't grow up with two parent house hold (I surely didn't) but I am one to believe that a daughter needs to see her father in the home.

Sorry for the babble.....

ok Back on track.....Is there anything missing in our kids? As a community did we drop the ball? I feel like our kids are slipping though the cracks. To balance though, we as parents are doing everything we know how to do to keep our children alive and out of prison. We work hard, supportive but somehow our children still get consumed by these streets. It seems as if they turn to the dark side willing just to rebel. Are our children mad? Mad at not having a mother available or not have a father present? Is it in their nature?

What's going on?

[Oldskool]

Work, I feel your pain and understand your frustration with the youth. I believe that video games, the need for violence in movies, have de-sensitized our young people to the consequences of pain. They under value life and all the necessities for a prosperous life. Greed of money and easy access to it have also created a crime wave of disobedience.

Promiscuity and permissiveness of society have created a lack of respect that we as a society should hold dear. The authorities have created a system where parents can't really discipline their children and the parents have created a system where no one else can discipline their children.

So, what do we have? A group of delinquents who just don't give damn.

I applaud you for being vigilant over your kids. That's all you can do. Let them know what is expected and be consistent about the consequences. It's hard work, but it can be done.

[Rare_Commodity]

Those of You Born
1930 - 1979

At the end of this Email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno.. If you don't read anything else, PleaseRead what he Said.
Very well stated, Mr. Leno.
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!


First, we survived being born to mothers
Who smoked and/or drank while they were
Pregnant.


They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing,
Tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.


Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.


We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles,
Locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode
Our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.


As infants & children,
We would ride in cars with no car seats,
No booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.


Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day
Was always a special treat.


We drank water
From the garden hose and not from a bottle.


We shared one soft drink with four friends,
From one bottle and no one actually died from this.


We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon..
We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar.
And, we weren't overweight.
WHY?


Because we were
Always outside playing...that's why!


We would leave home in the morning and play all day,
As long as we were back when the
Streetlights came on.


No one was able
To reach us all day. And, we were O.K.


We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps
And then ride them down the hill, only to find out
We forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes
a few times, we learned to solve the problem.


We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's and X-boxes.
There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable,
No video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's,
No cell phones, No personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS
And we went outside and found them!


We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth
And there were no lawsuits from these accidents.


We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt,
And the worms did not live in us
Forever.


We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and,
Although we were told it would happen,
We did not put out very many eyes.


We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and
Knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just
Walked in and talked to them.


Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn't had to learn to deal
With disappointment.
Imagine that!!


The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law
Was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!


These generations have produced some of the best
Risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.


The past 50 years
Have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility,
and we learned how to deal with it all.


If YOU are one of them?
CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others
who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the
lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives
for our own good .


While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know
how brave and lucky their parents were.


Kind of makes you want to run through the house
with scissors, doesn't it ?


The quote of the
month is by Jay Leno:
"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control,
mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms
tearing up the country from one end to another,
and with the threat of swine flu
and terrorist attacks.
Are we sure this is a good time
to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'