Some of our youth have no respect, no self-esteem

Fri Oct 18, 2013

Editor: I remember when I was growing up in my hometown Barrouallie I was always taught to respect the elders and show courtesy to everyone. In those days, we did not have much where material things were concerned, but we had family, we had love, and we always looked out for each other’s welfare. {{more}}

You look around in St Vincent and the Grenadines these days and it is totally the opposite. Oh, before I proceed, in my day or should I say our day, because there are still some folks from my era who still portray good manners. Thank God for that. When you saw any big person and you passed them straight without saying “good morning” or “Good evening” as the case may be, you knew that you were in a lot of trouble. Well, those beatings did a lot for us because that kind of discipline is what made us what we are today and we owe God, and by extension, our parents, for that.

These days everyone believes that they are “big people”. From the time they reach the age of three plus, they start to talk back to you and when you tell them one thing, they do whatever their minds tell them to do. I looked up the words “respect” and “esteem” in the Webster’s Dictionary and it says respect means “to consider worthy of high regard” and ‘esteem’ means “the regard in which one is held; high regard”.

If we have to do a proper evaluation of our young people today based on the definitions above, many of them would not measure up. Gone are the days when we respected our school uniforms, our schools and our teachers. Some of the worst profanity that you hear these days proceeds out of the mouths of our young people, especially the young ladies. It is shameful. Are these the kind of people that we want to take over when we are gone? God help us! You see them every day in an out of their school uniforms, drinking, smoking and behaving in ways that make you wonder if these are really schoolchildren. Some of the most hard drinkers are our young people and, believe me, those girls sometimes put the boys to shame. Are we inheriting a drinking society? I hope not.

We need sober young men and women who can make proper decisions for the future. Many times I look at them and shake my head. Oh, by the way, thank God not all of them have bowed to Baal. There are still some fine young men and women around who have dreams and aspirations and who are working, and working really hard to achieve them. To them I say: “Be focused, reach for higher heights. We will continue to pray you through”. To parents: “Try to be the role models for your children, so than if anything bad happens as a parent, you will not be hurt, but will rest in the assurance that you did your best”.

We all need the help of Almighty God every day of our lives. If we ever need to pray for our young people, it is now.

Clifford E. Gould