Kids today are Whimps

This past weekend in and around Edmonton, two families had to deal with the murder of their 17 year old sons. A few weeks ago an 18 year old girl was shot to death while walking home with friends. To date there have been somewhere in the nieghbourhood of 33 murders in Edmonton alone. Most of which have involved teens and young adults. All of whom had many good years left to live and plenty of reasons to do so. As Bob Dylan said "The times they are a changing". Unfortunately not for the better.

Back when I was in school and a kid myself, things were much different. When we had a dispute over something that could not be settled by peaceful means, we settled it in a relatively fair and non violent way compared to todays standards. Simply put, one would call out the other and they would duke it out one on one. The winner of the fight would walk away, and more importantly so would the loser. One or both may have had some minnor bumps, bruises,a black eye, some bleeding from the nose or lip and the worst part for the loser was a batterd ego. This would usually be the end of the matter.

Today it seems, rarely is it one on one. More times than not there is some kind of weapon involved. Far too often, one or more of the participants do not walk away as they require hospitalization or worse, are dead.

These kids are self centred, do not place any value on life, there own included. They can't seem to do anything on their own and require backing from friends in anything they do.

Have we gone in fast forward for so long as to travel back in time to the old west? Does one have to become the fastest draw to survive in our streets? Where did we as a society go wrong?

In my oppinion, we turned the corner and onto main street Wild West when we as a society decided that:

A) Punishment in schools should be a day off.

B) Authority was beaten down to a point where kids no longer have any respect for their elders or anyone else for that matter.

C) Decisions by the law makers and judges, that continually decrease the powers of the parents over their children and at the same time making parents more responcible for the actions of those out of control kids.

D) The one thing that kept most kids in check through out the years. "The Fear Factor"... this is long gone as well. Kids no longer have that little feeling. You know the one I speak of if you are more than 35 years of age. The fear of what you would face at home if and when you got caught for wrong doing. It did not matter if your parents had never raised a hand to you up to that point, you always had that feeling. This did not only work at home but at school as well. The mere threat of being sent to the principal's office was enough to scare most kids into compliance. This had a double whammy as you knew that word would also get to your parents and you would have to deal with them as well when you got home.

Can we turn back the hands of time? Not a chance, we are well past the point of no return. Can we change the attitudes of our youth? I sure hope so for their sakes. Although this is going to upset alot of people. Here is how I plan on doing my part to help things change.

I challenge all the kids out there to put down their weapons! Leave your friends at home. Walk up to that person that has gone to far and challenge them to a good old fist fight. One on one. Step up and truely show what you are made of. May the best "MAN/WOMAN" win! At least this way niether of your parents will have to go through the agony of needlessly losing a child.

Gangs, guns and other weapons in a fight are for whimps! Prove to me what you are really made of.