Ann Landers

Teens: a lost cause or a ray of hope?

Dear Ann Landers: When I read your glowing assessment of today's teen-agers, I decided you are either looking at the world through some mighty powerful rose-colored glasses, or you are completely off your rocker.

Today's American youth are the most stupid, impolite, self-centered people on the planet. They know everything about computers and nothing about history, literature, geography or the arts. Half of them are unable to name their own state capitol. They drive like lunatics, and eat like pigs. Their music is imbecilic and deafening. Most of their so-called art is garbage. Their trademark is four-letter words.

If we are ever in another war, it will have to be fought by men over 25. The 17-to-24-year-olds are spaced out on pot and heavier drugs and could never pass the physical. I don't know where or how this generation lost its way, but it IS lost, and I see no hope for these young people.

-- A Midwestern Realist

Dear Midwestern: Your off-the-wall, wild-eyed pessimism is depressing, and you have a strangely one-dimensional view of today's youth.

I have been writing this column for 45 years, and the complaints about teen-agers have always been the same -- they are impolite, self-centered and ignorant, their music is nothing but noise, and their art is garbage. Yet somehow, they manage to grow up to become responsible, caring, decent adults.

It is unfair to denigrate all teen-agers because of a few rotten apples. There are bad apples in every barrel. Most young people are bright and knowledgeable. Enrollment in colleges and universities has never been higher, yet teen-agers must work a lot harder to be accepted at these schools than graduates of previous generations.

Today's teen-agers are more concerned with the environment, more involved in volunteer work, more tolerant of people's differences, and more accepting of our diversity than the generations that preceded them. Instead of judging our youth from raunchy TV shows, exploitative movies and sensational headlines, get to know some of them, and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Dear Ann Landers: Please tell your readers the proper way to accept a gift. I recently gave a present to a friend who went on and on about how I shouldn't have spent so much money, and said the gift was too fancy for her lifestyle.

Such responses take the pleasure out of gift-giving. Why can't people be gracious and just say, "Thank you."

-- Joyless in New York

Dear N.Y.: For many people, it is easier to give than to receive. Gracious acceptance is an art. A warm, heartfelt thank you is in itself a gift. If only more folks knew it.

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