Seven Ways Young People Can Keep Our Country from becoming Officially Screwed

Town Hall ^ | December 8, 2007 | Doug Giles

[Chaguito]

Have you ever been to a village in Central America?

[A_Former_Democrat]

I think we are too. From terrorism to allocation of resources to internal divisions . . . hard to be optimistic anymore.

[timm22]

This guy write great. If he is 45, he sure jumps the generation chasm and talks to those fine young Americans who are either going to inherit a great, or a “sucky” country.

I beg to differ. This guy reminds me of some of the teachers I had in high school.

Faced with classes full of bored 16 year olds, these teachers would try to inspire interest in math, physics, or Old English literature by "casually" using outdated, misapplied youth slang. Or even worse, you'd have a white, suburban, middle-aged woman "rapping" about Boyle's Law. This would inevitably inspire cruel mockery from the less sensitive students. The good students would often feel like their intelligence had been insulted.

I think the author's heart is in the right place, and I applaud him for trying to help young people. I just think a a more toned-down approach might work better. A forced, artificial replication of youth culture is only going to appeal to those kids who are already on this guy's side.

[patriciaruth]

Way to go!

[Little Ray]

Actually... you’re wrong. Check the murder rates of Rio, Mexico City, etc. Outside of resort areas, many third-world countries put our crime rates to shame.

[Chaguito]

Thanks for responding with an argument that I can check out. That’s refreshing.

[ought-six]

“Have you ever been to a village in Central America?”

Have you ever read?

[Chaguito]

I asked you first.

Actually, I have, and you have a point. My experience in Central and South America has been in countries that have lower crime rates that the US by half. Shouldn't depend on personal experience.