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I'm 60 now, and as I get older I've come to notice, increasingly, a rebellious,
prank-pulling, authority-defying teenager growing within me. And when I'm no longer working, with all this time on my hands, and the idle mind is the devil's workshop?
I think it's probably best, then, that I work until I'm 75 or keep a hefty detainer with a criminal attorney!
I ain't afraid of old folks! (think ghost busters )
I think the people to fear are the snot-nosed generation coming of age right now. They are so spoiled of getting their own way and not being handed consequences that most have probably not learned any lessons in obedience.
"Your honor! Just look at me!" (he sits in his wheelchair in the courtroom with Ace bandages wrapped around both legs)
"Do you really think I'm capable of such heinious acts: slashing the tires of the board members of our association because they're raising our association dues $25 a month at our 55+ community, and spray-painting: Don't Move Here! This Place Is Infested With Ex-Felons! on the outer walls of our complex?"
Judge: Witnesses saw you recently riding your bike around the complex and your were doing jumping jacks on the patio of your house. You're not going to fool me! You were the most vocal member at that last association meeting and making threats! You are our primary suspect so far!
"Your honor! But to convict me of the charges you need fingerprints, eyewitnesses, surveillance camera tapes. Why must I insult your intelligence!"
"Your honor! Just look at me!" (he sits in his wheelchair in the courtroom with Ace bandages wrapped around both legs)
"Do you really think I'm capable of such heinious acts: slashing the tires of the board members of our association because they're raising our association dues $25 a month at our 55+ community, and spray-painting: Don't Move Here! This Place Is Infested With Ex-Felons! on the outer walls of our complex?"
Judge: Witnesses saw you recently riding your bike around the complex and your were doing jumping jacks on the patio of your house. You're not going to fool me! You were the most vocal member at that last association meeting and making threats! You are our primary suspect so far!
"Your honor! But to convict me of the charges you need fingerprints, eyewitnesses, surveillance camera tapes. Why must I insult your intelligence!"
Your post is hilarious. You should be a professional story teller. You're good at it!!
I have heard of this happening in Asian countries where their family traditions are falling apart. It used to be that children were taught to respect and honor and learn from their elders, but now things are very different. What can kids these days possibly learn from their elders? (That's the attitude, anyway...) The elders in families are not only being disrespected but even abused and neglected. My husband is half Thai and grew up in several Asian countries. We follow the news in those countries, and it's becoming common for older people in the age of what should have been an easy retirement with their children and grandchildren taking care of them, turning to crime to get by because of the broken families and lack of family values.
I can totally see this happening in America within the next few generations. Kids are raised in instituions due to both parents working - day care, before and after school care, summer day camps... they go home to box-dinners or fast food or take-out. Even if one parent stays home it's usually the case where the parents give the children too much freedome and not enough discipline. There's too much coddling and the kids grow up learning how to be manipulative to get what they want. No respect for authority. They go through the public school system where they aren't seen as an individual. Where there is a fear to discipline due to lawsuits. They watch shows and read books where there are hardly any parents present in the character's lives and if they are, the children still rule the roost - not the other way around. They grow up and work in cubicles. There's little humanity left in our children's lives and very little in the way of family left. Nobody seems to really care about anyone but themselves anymore, and the latest gadget, or having the trendy clothes and wearing the right fashion, and the internet serves to makes people feel closer to usernames on a screen than the real living and breathing people in their own lives. Kids are being raised to be antisocial creatures unable to relate or cope with reality. Parents are having to get jobs for their kids and parents are having to help their kids get into colleges and parents are footing the bill and spoonfeeding the next generations and it keeps getting worse with each generation.
It's sad, but it's the direction things seem to be going.
Last edited by haggardhouseelf; 06-28-2010 at 12:53 AM..
I ain't afraid of old folks! (think ghost busters )
I think the people to fear are the snot-nosed generation coming of age right now. They are so spoiled of getting their own way and not being handed consequences that most have probably not learned any lessons in obedience.
This is why the older generations need to worry. This is why they might have to turn to crime to get by. If the snot-nosed kids won't care for them, and the government won't care for them adequately - who's left to care for them? People are already waiting 2+ years for medicaid... people with cancer... people with severe diabetes... two years is a long time to wait for medical care. People are dying before they are getting care - even though they have already qualified for the service, they are still having to wait.
It's only going to get worse.
My husband and I are in our thirties and we're getting really worried.
... they go home to box-dinners or fast food or take-out. Even if one parent stays home it's usually the case where the parents give the children too much freedome and not enough discipline. There's too much coddling and the kids grow up learning how to be manipulative to get what they want. No respect for authority. They go through the public school system where they aren't seen as an individual. Where there is a fear to discipline due to lawsuits. They watch shows and read books where there are hardly any parents present in the character's lives and if they are, the children still rule the roost - not the other way around. They grow up and work in cubicles. There's little humanity left in our children's lives and very little in the way of family left. Nobody seems to really care about anyone but themselves anymore, and the latest gadget, or having the trendy clothes and wearing the right fashion, and the internet serves to makes people feel closer to usernames on a screen than the real living and breathing people in their own lives.
High tech societies seem to de-emphasize the "humanity" of people. "Growing up to work in a cubicle"--interesting thought you have there. We're more robotic, like the technology we use. When I visited Brazil, many times, over the last years--what impressed me was they are stronger at their cores regarding families/connection with others, in a general way. Even though financially "poorer," they have something inside that compensates for it. Not that poverty is glamourous, but they have a link to their humanity that is real and helps them. I think moving farther from yourself, with too much technology, isn't long-term helpful for any of us. It's good to evolve, but at what cost? How much do we lose in the process and how far should it go?
This is why the older generations need to worry. This is why they might have to turn to crime to get by. If the snot-nosed kids won't care for them, and the government won't care for them adequately - who's left to care for them? People are already waiting 2+ years for medicaid... people with cancer... people with severe diabetes... two years is a long time to wait for medical care. People are dying before they are getting care - even though they have already qualified for the service, they are still having to wait.
It's only going to get worse.
My husband and I are in our thirties and we're getting really worried.
I can really see what you are saying. I guess it's a lesson to us in our 30s to start saving now so that we are not in that situation in 30 more years. We can only learn from it.
There was an older woman in Florida this past winter that robbed a bank and her defense was that it was one of the things on her 'bucket list' of things to do before she died.
Stooped over defendant with a cane, panting and coughing profusely, slowly shuffles to the witness stand.
Judge: Must I inform you this is a courtroom, not a theatre stage! I've been informed that, at one time, you did a stellar performance as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, in a local theatre production. I also know you won the Senior's Marathon race last year at 75 years old. And our investigators have discovered you contribute to various online forums, under the screen names: CatchMeIfYouCan, SeniorRebel and CrimeCanBeFun, and I'm surprised the moderators on these forums haven't deleted the majority of your encouragement-of-law-breaking posts!
Your honor! All circumstancial evidence! Guilty until proven innocent!
Judge: Ladies and gentlemen assembled! There's been a rash of purse snatchings within a mile of the senior apt. building he lives in. He has the fastest electric wheelchair available on this planet and he uses it as a weapon, as an accomplice to his crimes. And if he isn't using his wheelchair, he plays the humble Hunchback of Notre Dame to delude, not only his fellow seniors, but younger people as well.
Your honor! The surveillance tapes, eyewitness, fingerprints, where are they?
Judge: This is a extremely dangerous man! If I had my way, I'd go to my office this very minute to get my Smith & Wesson .38 and have all of you take turns eliminating this menace to our community right in front of my eyes. Throwing this criminal on Death Row would be a crime in itself!
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