The Youth of Today

I listen to the news and once again there are items about young people. I turn the pages of the national press and also those of my local community and there are many pages dedicted to bashing the youth of today.

I wonder if it's a British phenonemon.

I'm not that travelled, but spend a goodly ammount of time in Brittany, a land and people close in many ways to that in which i live.
Their news and papers are full of articles about young people too, but they are positive, focusing on achievements and community participation.
They don't seem to harbour bad feelings about or towards young people and are not frightened of them.

I wonder if we promoted such an attitude in our media the problems associated with the youth of today would dissipate.

We live on the outskirts of a small coastal town. There are over 600 children in the secondary school alone.
Every evening and at weekends there are a small number of young people who hang around with eachother on the town square. They lark about, play fight, spit, are loud and sometimes abusive. They ride their bikes on the pavement and are generally unaware of others. They smoke, do drugs, buying, selling and using and they drink.

When asked about this they say theres nothing else to do.....nowhere for them to go.

They are, possibly 6-10 young people out of over 600 young people. They do not represent the youth of today, being less than 1% and yet they are paraded and promoted as typical youth of today. Infact they are the exception to the youth of today.

What are the other 590 young people doing?

I suspect that they are achieving and busy being a part of their local community.