I’ve been reading all the New Years posts, and articles in the news. They are full of a new start for 2022. We ended 2021 with serious problems. Those problems seem to be increasing. The new variant is much worse. The U.S. has posted one million cases, with no end in sight. The cruise industry opened up, now ships with thousands of passengers, are finding ones that are affected. Our climate catastrophe, has shone some light, but it’s not enough. No one seems to be listening.
Yes, there are countries, big and small doing wonderous things to help our environment. But the problem is a lack of unity throughout the world’s leaders. There is no clear leadership, it seems they are obsessed by their own agendas. I think the worse offenders, I’m sorry to say is the United States leadership. This is not an indictment of any one group. They are all to blame, Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Liberals, and everyone in between. They are consumed with gaining their own power in government. Perusing their own interests for the country. That’s not totally bad, but wake up, if you don’t do something on a global scale soon, you’re not going to have a world left, much less a government to govern.
I feel most sorry for the younger generations growing up in this topsy-turvey world. They have less or no actual power to change things. I honor those few that are trying to make a difference. Maybe we should pay heed to their voice.
I read an article saying that today’s parents are overprotecting their children, “Fewer children are walking to school on their own, riding their bicycles around neighborhoods or going on errands for their parents,” is leading to an increase in anxiety among children. They see the world as a dangerous place.
I understand the problems that parents are facing today. Yes, the world has become very dangerous for everyone, and especially for children. Having been involved with the plight of abused children for many years through a friend, my thoughts always go back to my childhood, and how we were free to play outside without parents constantly checking on us.
When I was growing up, I guess the world was a safer place or was it the circumstances of where I grew up. I grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn in the 40’s and 50’s. The street was Amboy Street, the name made famous by the 1947 book “The Amboy Dukes,” by Irving Shulman. The book portrayed the lives of teenage street criminals in Brooklyn during World War II.
The fact is that when I was old enough to be out and about on my own, I never encountered any teenage street gangs. Actually, my street, Amboy Street with Blake Avenue to the north and Dumont Avenue to the south became to me a very insular street not unlike a small town. What made it insular was that on each end of the street, or block as we called it, were all the shops with the goods and services that met all our needs without having to always venture outside of those borders.
During the school year, after walking home the two blocks, with my friends, it was rare that we would spend time playing outside. There was homework to do, and most of the time it was too cold. It was when school was out for the summer that we spent most of the day and part of the night on the street playing games or just hanging out. We never worried about any kind of danger from outside people coming onto the block, as kids today are subject to.
In those days without air conditioning, there was always a mother or two hanging out of a window, or sitting on the stoop, watching what was going on. We also had a policeman who we knew, regularly walking through the neighborhood. So, this was how I grew up. Just one block in the middle of Brooklyn where most of the people who lived there were very content. They felt they had everything they wanted or needed right there without having to venture, to what seemed like the outside world. Were these the reasons that our parents didn’t overprotect us? I guess so.
I want to close with what Lao-Tzu, who lived 604-531B.C. feared, his quotes which mirror some of our present-day problems. “Govern a large country as you would cook a small fish-lightly,” “When men do not have a sense of awe, there will be disaster,” “Take care of what is difficult while it is still easy, and deal with what will become big while it is yet small,” “The wise are not learned; the learned are not wise,” and “When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, “We did it ourselves.” I think there is a lot we can learn from Lao-Tzu.
