Easter | 2013

before the foundation of the earth
-- if the story is true --
before the foundation of the earth
this day was signed
sealed
delivered

in the wind | tweets from the week ending 03.30.13

Cold Dead Hands | Jim Carrey vs Charlton Heston at Funny or Die
http://jimhancock.blogspot.com
#makegunviolenceharder

Read it for yourself: Science in the Public Interest reports on fast food + childhood obesity 
http://bit.ly/ZsOQzL #parent #wecanfixthis

See where your representatives stand on gun reform + tell them where you stand on voting 
http://bit.ly/YMhug4#makegunviolenceharder

Pew reported on when US Christians think Jesus will return. Am I the only one surprised just 14% said Don't Know?
http://bit.ly/ZrrWZv

Affluenza | a small idea from Raising Adults 
http://jimhancock.blogspot.com #raisingadults #parent #youthwork

Here's the first draft transcript of oral arguments before the Supreme Court regarding DOMA today
http://1.usa.gov/15VKSni

I shared a photo | a short history of sexting 
http://jimhancock.blogspot.com #youthwork #parent #thinkbeforeyoulink

Here's the first draft transcript of oral arguments before the Supreme Court regarding California Prop 8 today
http://bit.ly/1065HL7

the same boat | a small idea from Raising Adults
http://jimhancock.blogspot.com #parent #youthwork

UPDATE: US gun deaths in the 101 days since the Newtown slaughter climbed to 2971 
http://JimHancock.blogspot.com#makegunviolenceharder

Stephen King on finding a middle way to sensible gun regulation 
http://bit.ly/XABCBM #makegunviolenceharder

Real to whom? | a small idea from Raising Adults 
http://jimhancock.blogspot.com #parent #youthwork

Cold Dead Hands | Jim Carrey versus Charlton Heston at Funny or Die

WARNING: Rude + Crude

Cold Dead Hand with Jim Carrey from Jim Carrey      

Affluenza | a small idea from Raising Adults

Affluenza

The problems long associated with our economic underclass are epidemic in the suburbs too. As early as 1981, someone called it affluenza—the same behaviors and attitudes slightly upscaled. Cocaine in place of crack. Jaegermeister in place of Colt 45. Burgling suburban homes instead of knocking over convenience stores. Cutting and other self-injurious behaviors rather of lashing out. Oral sex instead of premature birthing.

And so we’re sad, a lot of us. We hate to see kids get off on the wrong foot. They are after all our children, one way or another.

The question is, What are we doing about it?

Parents are not alone. A million middle and high school teachers, instructors and coaches tend to North American adolescents throughout the school year. Add half a million church-based youth workers, 3 million employers and 16 million retailers, marketers, officers of the court—and, of course, demographers—and teenagers have the admittedly divided but substantial attention of a whole lot of adults.

As long as we’re counting, let’s add that North America kids are just a fraction of around two billion global teens. Let me repeat that another way so we don’t miss it:

Right now, two billion teenagers call this world their home.

Is it just me or does that seem like an awful lot of kids hanging out at the mall? Or fighting wars...Or spreading disease...Or building and buying things...Or solving planetary problems.

— from Raising Adults

I shared a photo | a short history of sexting

Thanks to Children of the Street Society in Vancouver, BC.

the same boat | a small idea from Raising Adults

The same boat

If Boomers like me gave up our ideals in The Big Chill, well our kids may be sorry for us but, frankly, it has nothing to do with them. They don’t hate us for that, they don’t hold us in contempt. But they don’t admire us either, or feel obliged to listen when we go on about things (as we tend to do). Still, they’re watching. For what, we’re not sure. They play by a different set of rules and they won’t necessarily tell us what they are.

Most kids seem to be doing fine. They’re not in jail nor do they seem likely to go there. They get to school or work most days. They don’t carry concealed weapons, traffic in drugs or consort with prostitutes. They seem to be turning out OK.

Perhaps it’s benign neglect: We managed to not screw them up. Or Providence. Providence was very popular with the founding fathers and mothers. It’s in all the early writings; I see no reason we can’t invoke it now.

Or maybe we didn’t do such a bad job on the whole. Maybe the kids are alright. Except that some aren’t doing so well; some days it seems like most aren’t doing so well.

Generation X and Y and whatever’s next are clichés constructed on something observable. That observable something is a disturbing level of aimlessness, sadness, anger, fear, occasional violence, and hopelessness.

Many of our children reach adulthood with a serious deficit of life skills. They enter their adult years emotionally impotent, unable to cope with pressure, socially unskilled, scholastically under-prepared, spiritually undernourished.

I wish I could say these problems belong to someone else. I wish I could say they are urban issues. I’d like to point to out-of-touch rural communities and say, Look, these folk aren’t raising adults. I wish these were the challenges of single mothers, people of color, the poor. It would give me great satisfaction to say these difficulties afflict only the rich. But it’s not true. We’re all in the same boat.

— from Raising Adults

Real to whom? | a small idea from Raising Adults

Real to whom?

Remember The Me Decade? It started as an entertaining, insightful essay on postwar America. The popular press loved it, American preachers jumped on it and, after a few months, The Me Decade became The Me Generation and they meant people like me. They meant Baby Boomers. They said we were self-centered and unreliable. They said we were sex-obsessed, drug-addled and undisciplined. All we cared about, they said, was feeling good. Which made our mothers blink back tears and our fathers shake their heads gravely wondering where they went wrong.

The preachers and the press were partly right about Boomers. And partly wrong. America was, and is, a cultural soup. We stew on a back burner, every generation adding unique flavors to the blend. Generalizations seldom reflect anybody’s reality. Some Boomers went to Vietnam; some to Canada. Most stayed put. Some smoked dope, a few were Jesus Freaks, a lot went to college, most went to work. Boomers did not end civilization—though a few in government took a good crack at it. Boomers blended into the soup; just like everyone.

I expect the generations following mine will do more or less the same. Most of our children are or soon will be competent, capable, productive, fun human beings. Kids have a way of becoming that for the most part. They turn adult on us, whether we raise them that way or not. Still, I can’t help noticing that a sizable number of our offspring are not much interested in what folks like to call the real world. “Real to whom?” they wonder.

— from Raising Adults

in the wind | tweets from the week past

Following the nitrous oxide/whippet meme? Here's the NIH fact sheet: 
http://1.usa.gov/10wRRDF #parent #youthworker #partydrug

"You are the parent, and a screen doesn't change that." @beccasara 
http://on.mash.to/WTkUl6 #parent #youthworker

What if there were just 100 people in the world...how would we regard each other? 
http://lnkd.in/aKNKvi

John's Glasses | Yoko Ono tweets a picture that should never have been taken
 http://lnkd.in/aKNKvi #makegunviolenceharder

Gay parents too: Am. Acad. Pediatrics "supports access for all children to civil marriage rights for their parents..."
http://bit.ly/WXxrov

How does increased prevalence of parent-reported autism in school kids affect the practice of #youthwork? 
http://1.usa.gov/YXlFbc #parent

UPDATE: US gun deaths in the 94 days since the Newtown slaughter climbed to 2763 
http://lnkd.in/fv_ySD #makegunviolenceharder

What if there were 100 people in the world...

If the World were 100 People infographic by KVSStudio sourced by 100people.org

John's Glasses | Yoko Ono tweets a picture that should never have been taken

@yokoono

Where were you when John Lennon was gunned down? Does it matter? It only matters where Mark David Chapman was, and what he held in his hand, and what he did with it. That's all that ever matters to victims of gun violence — where "victim" especially includes widows and orphans of the stolen ones.

Come on, if we can #makegunviolenceharder, why wouldn't we?

He who smelt it... OR things people do to fit in... OR Social disinhibitors we can get behind...

Bono @TED | Extreme Poverty is in Retreat | Let's Not Give Scarcity a Fighting Chance.

Extreme poverty declined from 43% in 1990 to 33% in 2000 to 21% by 2010 — that's a 50% reduction of extreme poverty in two decades. 

If the present trend line continues, we can reach zero before 2030. @Bono talks @TED about not screwing that up.

#makegunviolenceharder

We can make gun violence harder.

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