Time for Change - Disrespectful Youth? - Is it time for us adults to turn vigilante?

Dear All

I really felt the need to share the below with you. It is about an incident on the bus today which left me incensed. All I have to say is this, it's time to change strategy. Out youth need to recognise, they cannot get away with things anymore, but as always, it's how do we tackle this.

“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.”
Benjamin Franklin quotes

I feel I have to share this episode with you purely because I am so incensed by what I have just witnessed. This is not to say that I have not witnessed such disgraceful behaviour before, because it comes in many guises from being verbally abusive, spitting, to physical confrontation, yet all the same disgusting and simply “degrading.”

Today I was heading to an appointment for 1pm. Three stops after getting on the bus, three men got on. One went upstairs the other two stayed downstairs. The driver called after one of the young men, who incidentally, had his mobile phone in his hand with music blaring out, as if anyone really needs to hear his crap. After calling several times, the bus driver then killed the engine. There was a wait period of about 10 minutes until the young man came downstairs, obviously realising that he was in the wrong. He confronted the driver stating “make me get of the bus, then, make me get off the bus.” Obviously in his arrogant and ignorant state, he knew he was in the wrong and as he got off the bus he SPAT at the driver.

Peeps, and I really am not ashamed to say this. If I had a brick at the time, I would not have hesitated to throw it.

Not only was I fuming by now because I had missed my appointment but more so I was fuming because I was incensed at such tactless and disrespectful behaviour. The way I see it is this: yes there are a number of problems facing our youth. Yes, as many say the system is against them. Yes there are facts to prove this. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT – I don’t give a flying rat, regarding where these youth are coming from and what they’ve got against them. I don’t give a monkey’s banana about all the other plausible excuses that we have for them, the fact of the matter is this:

Regardless to where you have come from and who you are or what you have experienced, RESPECT and MANNERS are something which should be innate. People are pushing the boundaries of life everyday. I cannot only just blame the youth because often times, you look on the home front and there are some serious issues going on there. But let’s just level this up. Respect and manners are two key, absolute key components that make up the boundaries in society of which we all bounce off. Without these in place, society deteriorates into the cauldron of bedlum. Someone shouted out to the youth that “he should be in school.” My stance, if I was a bigger and better person, he would’ve found his carcass in a hospital bed.

Let me also make it plain here. I have two boys and I am becoming more and more aware of how difficult it is for our young black men, but the fact of the matter here is they are not making things easier for themselves neither. I am conscious of so many dynamics surrounding having boys and it is absolutely key, that I try my utmost to, and if I must, impose certain restrictions on them so they know there are certain places they cannot go.

Society is falling into the pit of degradation, in fact it is almost there. We need to bring back into our lives, our communities, our families, those BASICS that have kept and held us as a people for so long a time. It is these fundamentals such the below which in their simplicity are the bedrock of society and humanity’s progression into a higher state of being.

v Respect
v Manners
v Discipline
v Courtesy
v Politeness
v Faith

I am tired of the excuses we are giving for the behaviour exhibited by our youth. I am really, really and if I may use the word “pissed off” with such a LACK of consciousness about the above basics.

Yet as always, we go back to the same thing “What is the solution”

If I had my way, every offence committed would mean these individuals would be stripped bare, maybe leaving their underpants on, put in the town centre and made an exhibition and example of. Strip away their arrogance and ignorance with shame. Strip them bare physically, challenge them that this behaviour will not be accepted and there are consequences. Walking the street as if they are vigilantes will no longer be a game, it will require a backlash from parents, conscious adults. The sweet pillow talk thing will be a thing of the past. I think it is time to get radical, because every day I step outside my door, I come home feeling angry and despair.

“Treat others as you want them to treat you because what goes around comes around”