And another one bites the dust....adios K.J.

[Tear Down This Wall]

You and I agree on next to nothing, but you're doing the best thing a man can do right now: being a dad/uncle/big bro, whatever. Hang in there! It won't always be easy but it 'needs doing'.

Yeah, but in the end, it all has to come from him. I can't make him do anything.

He's got a buddy - one year out of high school - didn't go to college, just got some sort of "job" job, and was selling dope and meth on the side. He was caught and put in jail.

Whatever my real world examples are to him, he's seeing it all play out with his childhood buddy now.

It's just not a good thing to mess around with. Part of the reason I got the nephew up here is that once his buddy got arrested things got real-er. I mean, he's hanging around the same kids in that town once he's home from college, right? So, I told my wife, look, let's have your nephew live with us, a can put him to work as an intern, and maybe he doesn't go down the same road as his drug buddy.

They live in a small town/city outside of Fort Worth. We're about an hour and a half to two hours away in the Metroplex; so, he can't be hanging around with the night after night. I figured stepping in sooner rather than later might be the right thing to do; and, while he's still young enough to turn it around and not keep making the wrong choice...about a drug society keeps telling him is no big deal.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

What is wrong with these young players? Do they not understand the disappointment their parents must feel? Forget about pro football chances, we are talking about a free education that will take care of you for life! Staying in the program (whether you ever get on the field) guarantees contacts that will help you be a success. But even Pat Jones keeps saying you can't help "knuckleheads", that they just don't get it!

I envy anyone who gets a scholarship for school, I had to work full time (40 to 50 hours a week) and go to night school for my degrees, and it took 10 years. But I know there are people that think the rules do not apply to them.

Mom, they don't GAS about parents and education...they are all about playing sports doing what they want to and not so much about education. I don't know K.J's particular circumstance, but much of this can be blamed on lack of a nuclear family, IMO.

[Pride1Mom]

I just think this society's values are all screwed up! My mother was a widow at the age of 33, with three kids to care for, and she did it on her own! She taught us that the only helping hand is the one at the end of your sleeve. We were taught responsibility to take care of what we had, because the only thing you truly own is your name, and there are always consequences on how you decide to live.

I sound OLD FASHION, but the youth of today have no guidance, or ignore it when it is given to them. I know that the OU has programs for disadvantaged youth, but they can only do so much...you can't fix stupid.

[Eielson]

I always hear stories about how great the older generation was than mine. Then I get the facts, and shucks...turns out they were just as bad or worse in a lot of ways. I've come to the conclusion that every older generation thinks the newer one is lazy, ruining the world, etc.

[olevetonahill]

I always hear stories about how great the older generation was than mine. Then I get the facts, and shucks...turns out they were just as bad or worse in a lot of ways. I've come to the conclusion that every older generation thinks the newer one is lazy, ruining the world, etc.

Naw it aint the Younger generations my friend. Its the God damn Liberal Dems. Yer welcome

[KantoSooner]

It's funny, Eielson, you can go back to the Old Testament, Aristotle or Kung Fu Tsu and find the same carping. The young 'uns just don't pay their elders proper respect. And they're noisy and have bad taste in music, to boot.
I came of age in the 1970's and all we heard about was how we hadn't ever 'committed' to a cause like the '60's people...when all it really seemed like they had done was to burn through the accumulated wealth of three centuries in one epic decade long party.
As to the 'responsibility' of previous generations, a casual stroll through public statistics over the past two centuries has made me pretty happy to live today. Alcohol/substance abuse, rape, incest, physical violence, child abandonment, malnutrition and general misery were far higher in the 19th century than today. And you don't have to decode 'The Honeymooners' very far to realize that those trends didn't go away in the first half of the 20th either.