To the younger generation

I wish to address the children now, so, adults, please go read Buzzfeed or check your horoscope or work the Jumble a minute, ok? I need to tell the young people something.

OK, gang, I need to tell you something, and it's about figuring things out with a discerning ear.

You may have been told that by the time you reach your 20s, 30s, whatever, you will be mature and capable and will know which end is up and will be able to handle yourself in the world.

And I am here to tell you that adults are not doing all that good a job of it right now, so don't worry about being as good as us. That's pretty much assured, you will be. Because I am certain you will not behave as these adults do:

• Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was the only senator who voted AGAINST a bill that was written to fight the recent uptick in hate crimes against Asian-Americans. The man who encouraged the Capitol riot on January 6 with a raised fist to a roiling mob of troublemakers says "it’s dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents." So he, out of all the US Senators, doesn't mind Asian people getting smacked around on the streets, targeted for their ethnicity.
• Emergent, manufacturer of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccines, mixed up the ingredients at their Baltimore plant, ruining millions of vaccine doses because, apparently, people were not paying attention to their job. Hey, it's only medicine, not something important like making Chicken McNuggets.
• Hundreds of people who received their vaccine at the US Army's Kimbrough Ambulatory Care Center (KACC) at Fort Meade, Maryland received vaccines that were allowed to sit at room temperature for 24 hours, even though everyone in the world knows that vaccines have to be maintained under strict temperature guidelines. No harm done, except for the waste, and 800 people will have to be re-vaccinated, and those in the public who are leery or disdainful of the vaccine's value have another arrow in their "See? I TOLD you it's no good!" quiver.
• A man from Baltimore County man was thrown off a Southwest Airlines flight for eating Twizzlers. He was on the plane, waiting to take off for Ft. Lauderdale, and he pulled his mask down to eat a Twizzler, only to be told that a new rule went into effect in February that says if you are on a plane and eating or drinking, that mask better be on your face even between sips and bites.
  
  
  

You see, guys, adults sometimes get so caught up in setting themselves up as a rogue candidate for political office that they don't care how many people suffer for their ambition, or they get to gabbing on the job or checking their phones instead of making sure the right chemicals go in the right bottle, or they forget to keep life-saving vaccines cold, or they become ridiculously strict about following impractical rules, and in doing so they cause harm.

Your generation will do better! I have no doubt. Go prove me right.