So there is now a curfew in Quakertown. If you are under 18, you are not welcome on borough streets, and in public places, late at night. It's not fair. It's discriminatory. It punishes the good along with the bad. Why should the peaceful adolescents, the silent majority, have to suffer for the sins of the few defiant bad apples?
Well, kids, welcome to the world. Where things are just not fair. Where the "good" 99 and 44/100ths percent of the population is inconvenienced and punished in order to more effectively deal with that miniscule bad element. Sorry to intrude on your independence, but welcome to your parents' reality.
So the curfew is a hassle? Cramps your style? Look around - with adult eyes. Tens of millions of travelers now wait in airport screening lines, and pay surcharges on their tickets, to ostensibly weed out a few maniacs. Our phone calls and emails are intercepted in the name of national security. Citizens and non-citizens alike can be detained and held without charges just for appearing "suspicious". Our vehicles are subject to random inspections. Civil liberties are a thing of the past. And you are upset at having to be off the streets a little earlier than you would like?
So maybe you think that adults don't understand your complaints; that you are the first generation to feel disrespected, dispossessed, and disenfranchised. Time for a little 'tude adjustment. For those too young to remember - and that would include everyone under 18 today - kids had no rights until recently. Before the mid-1960's, you just did what you were told, either out of fear/respect for your parents, or fear/respect for other authority. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Children should be seen and not heard.
Parents had pretty much free reign on discipline. Police dealt harshly with "juvenile delinquents". There was no psychobabble sympathy for "troublemakers", no public acceptance of dissent. And not just kids were affected. It was a wonderful time to be alive in America - if you were an adult white male. But this call to conformity dissolved with the Vietnam War, the first time that Americans saw their leaders as fallible and fraudulent. We questioned Washington, Wall Street, and Madison Avenue.
And the leaders of the revolution were the kids. College-age students - the cannon fodder for War-a-Go-Go - developed a decided aversion to dying for what they saw as the profit of the military-industrial complex. The resulting protests and resistance to authority spilled over into every area of our lives. Raging Against The Machine became all the rage. Long hair, outrageous clothing, acid-rock music, and doing your own thing changed societal and family relationships. The pendulum swung left, and there were liberal new-found rights for everyone. The individual became more important than the whole.
But pendulums swing both ways, albeit slowly. Society was tiring of special rights for every occasion even before 911. And that horrific experience convinced us that perhaps we had tolerated too much in the name of personal freedom. Our reaction has been to become a country where the rights of the many are now trumped every time by the fear of the few. We used to embrace constitutional amendments that granted civil rights, voting rights, and equal rights. Now it's banning gay marriage, banning abortion, banning affirmative action.
So you want some sympathy for having to be out of the parks by midnight? You came to the wrong people at the wrong time. Sure, there are many well-meaning folks out there who still cherish the '60's mentality. I'll never lose my free-love of that era. But just look around again, with adult eyes. Who is the president? Who are his supporters? What is the tenor of this country? If the word "conservative" doesn't come to your mind, at least one child has been left behind.
Borough council was split 4-2 on the curfew. Give great credit to both sides. The issue was debated, the pros and cons explored. Those who voted for it addressed the need to control vandalism, verbal harassment, and loud noise, particularly in the town's parks. And while no one on council truly liked the idea of curtailing anyone's rights, they saw a curfew as a tool to prevent the situation from escalating to the point where police have to take real action. Like in Philadelphia, or Allentown. Or Doylestown.
Those who voted against it cited their beliefs that the community was not in favor of a measure this drastic at this time. President Dennis Hallman, who prefers to build consensus rather than cast a deciding vote, actually switched from yea to nay. Obviously, either option was going to displease some citizens. But this is one of those hard questions that council was elected to answer, and in the end they went with the request of the police department, which wanted the ability to act if needed.
Of course, the "if needed" part would never occur if parents showed the same concern for their kids, and the community, as council does. There just is no excuse for teens hanging out late at night in ways that disturb neighbors and families. There would be no reason to even discuss a curfew if mom and dad knew where junior and sis were, and what they were doing.
So, kids, if you are hissed off about this latest ruling from the gestapo, don't blame council. Don't blame the innocent people who only want some peace and quiet in their own homes. Don't blame the cops. Blame your own friends, the ones who think it's cool to cause trouble, and flaunt authority. They have brought this on you, and, until they clean up their acts, it is you who will suffer.