The Kid Next Door

My love for politics has led me to want to start my own blog on the subject for quite some time. Something that brings the parties together and reminds us that we are still a great country and we still have common ground. I am in love with our great nation and one of the things that I love most about America is our ability to pull together in the face of tragedy and adversity. Which brings me to my first post which surprisingly has little, if nothing to do with the upcoming election.

There is nothing more precious, more sacred to the future of our freedom, our democracy, our liberty, than the future of our youth. I am not the least bit hesitant to say that we are in crisis. When the shootings at Columbine happened it was some of our first warnings and when I read the headlines today of kids killing kids, kids killing themselves and kids relentlessly torturing each other I realized that we as a nation have to come together as if the twin towers fell all over again. Our youth is the future of America. They should be our future leaders, our future businessmen and our future caretakers but it is painfully obvious that we as the villagers have lost interest in raising the proverbial child. As our children wander aimlessly for direction and become more disconnected, more hopeless, more violent and vicious, we as adults are too busy trying to make ends meet in a grinding economy to even begin to have the energy to sort it out and make a difference.

How does this happen? Could our adult division among political parties and the bickering among them be a factor? Could it breed enough contempt and in some extreme cases enough hate to trickle down into their lives? Is it absent parents that have to work 10 hour days just to make ends meet, and leaving the kids to raise themselves? Is it the disregard of some kind of spirituality that could provide faith and hope? Or could it also be a lack of tolerance to things that are different that is set as an example to kids, leaving them numb and isolated.

I feel the need to sound the alarm and I begin this new blog with them. We can not afford to lose the great minds of the future and this crisis should be our first priority. We cannot change legislation or laws but this is something as every day people can do something about. All we need to do is take some time and get involved, spend some time and pay attention and most of all set an example. You can take the attitude that these our not our own children so we don't have the responsibility to raise them. But I proclaim that ALL Children of America is our future and it is our responsibility to get involved. We don't have to go out and start big organizations to make a difference. It starts with the kid next door.