A Generation Set Aside

Often we hear of the generation gap -- that huge expanse between parent and child. Perhaps it is an acquaintance gap. Young people and adults do not know each other. The inability to communicate often enters the picture. Sometimes it is because neither knows what the other is interested in. They live under the same roof, but they rarely see one another, especially after the teenage years come along. The father goes off to work before the children are awake. Mother may go back to bed after seeing the husband off to work; or off to her own job. Teenagers get themselves up and off to school without seeing either parent. Then after school there is ball practice, band practice, or something else that consumes their time; maybe a job that lasts until bedtime. Parents have things that tie them up in the evenings; so the days come and go, and there is precious little time spent together.

the boyz from the hood

Boyz n the Hood (soundtrack)

Film poster for Boyz n the Hood - Copyright 1992, ...

A meal together is even a rare occasion. All of these activities may be wholesome and proper, but still the family suffers because there is so little time spent together. This causes many children to make too many decisions on their own, and so often they will leave important and crucial matters out of their thoughts and plans. This generation often gets labelled by the media and the older people in society as the "youngsters who are tearing this country apart." The fact of the matter is that we are a product of our parent's mistakes and remain to be misunderstood.

In the past several years we have seen much media attention focused on the generation that followed the boomers, popularly known as Generation X. Born between the mid-1960s and early 1980s , this is the most complex of the generation,