Basic HTML Version
A message to
Teenagers
and Parents:
DROP
YOUR
DOUBLE
STANDARD
This article speaks out to both parents and
teen-agers. lt's time both stopped hurling
insults at one another and sat down to talk
and change their ways of living.
by
Richard Gipe
T
ODAY THERE'S A LOT
of talk
about the "Generation Gap." A
thousand and one articles about the
"new" generation - about parents who just
"don't understand these kids."
There are TV specials, magazine articles, even
books about the "hip scene," the drug explosion, new
dress styles, the problem of runaways, teen-age mar–
iages, skyrocketing venereal disease, rock festivals, ad
infinitum - and sometimes
ad nauseum.
Most of these programs, articles and books are
written from the
Establishment
point of view. Not
enough of them analyze
BOTH
points of view, and
explain
how
both generations can close the mental
chasm between them. Isn't it time we heard less of the
"Gap" and more of a new-found "Communication"
between the two generations?
Both
Sides of
rhe Coin
Let's stop a moment - teen-agers and parents.
Let's understand
WHY
the "Great Generation Gap,"
and
HOW
it can be bridged.
Many parents realize (many, many more don't)
that they have lost the ability to really help their
teen-agers. They have allowed a barrier between
themselves and their children to grow up through the
years. Teen-agers feel parents don't "understand"
them. Parents are at wits' end trying to deal with
their teen-agers.
That's why parents need to
listen
to the genera–
tion they've lost contact with. This is how many of
them view their parents' world.
"1 Don't Like
Your
World"
"Why should I be like you?" this generation
asks. "What do you have to offer? You don't have
happiness. You don't have answers. Look at the sad
shape
your
world is in. Since the day I was born, !'ve
bad to live under the threat of being blown to bits.
Every day of my life has been spent under the shadow
of the Bomb. This is your world - you made
it
this
way. You want me to be like you? You've got to be
kidding! No, man, I'm going to do my own thing.
l've got a message for you. You'd better clean up
your own back yard, you know. You've been throwing
stones while living in a glass house! Look at you,
man.
If
your way is so good - why do you have so
many hang-ups?
"You tell me I ought to get a job and work. Why
should I? Look where work got you. Two hours every
day fighting the freeway, eight hours a day chained