Young people always rebel against wrong attitudes rigidly held by their elders.
Kids rocked and rolled against the complacency of the Eisenhower era, protested during the '60s to make America conform with its abandoned ideals, went alternative to counter late 20th-century mega-greed and led an environmental greening that gives future generations a chance to reach adulthood.
Societal hypocrisy spurs their anger.
Students who recite a Pledge of Allegiance that ends with, "with liberty and justice for all," definitely ought to be outraged that gays aren't permitted to marry, that Hispanic-Americans face racial profiling, and that our Islamic fellow citizens endure worsening prejudice.
Also, could anything be more maddening to thoughtful teens than conservative Christians who profess faith in the Ten Commandments but who bear false witness against President Obama by ludicrously insisting that he's a foreign-born alien, a secret Muslim or a Marxist?
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How about holding piety for "thou shalt not kill" -- except when launching lied-about, needless wars that bloodily claim innocents by the multiple thousands?
From Cairo and Madison to occupied Wall Street, thank goodness for today's restive, progressive youth!
Dennis Rahkonen
Superior
