Reality Bites by James Norton for the week of August 2

In case you all have forgotten, we were all teenagers once, get over it

It‚Äôs so convenient the way we look at teenagers these days ‚Äì and forget where it is we came from and how we all were when we were younger.  Don‚Äôt give me that crap that you were a saint growing up and never got into trouble ‚Äì if that‚Äôs the truth then you didn‚Äôt grow up around here ‚Äì and you certainly didn‚Äôt go to public school then.

  That doesn‚Äôt mean if you went to public school you had a propensity for getting into trouble more than someone who went to a private or parochial school‚Äì but the exposure to a larger amount of people from various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds was certainly greater and you can draw your own conclusions.
  Today, teenagers get into the same silly shit we all used to get into back in the day ‚Äì okay, maybe the drugs are more intense and there‚Äôs more violence involving firearms ‚Äì but there‚Äôs very little else to distinguish 20 or 40 years ago from today (droopy, baggy jeans and ‚Äúgangsta rap‚Äù not withstanding).
  I ran around with a fairly large group of kids from when I was preteen through my late teen years ‚Äì and I happened to be the oldest of the bunch ‚Äì with most of them just a year or two behind me in age.  We did all the usual crap ‚Äì played basketball and baseball in the public parks and fields ‚Äì got into fights, did drugs and drank and other stuff that I‚Äôd probably like to forget about.  Anytime any of us was disrespectful to an adult of any age, it was fun, it was living life on the edge, and it was stupid.
  The one thing that has never changed for me personally in 20-25 years has been my view on being disrespectful to others.  If I did something when I was a teenager that I knew to be disrespectful, and we all have done things like that when we were younger, then I expected to get my ass kicked by someone.  It didn‚Äôt matter that I knew how to fight or what the circumstances were, I just expected to get my ass kicked.
  And kicked it was on several occasions.
  A funny thing happened on the way to 2006.  Today teens call 911 on their parents, claim child abuse, blame their stupid drug and drinking problems on their family life, whatever.  Sure its not 1950 anymore and you can‚Äôt smack your kid when he or she mouths off, but still ‚Äì don‚Äôt give kids an avenue to ruin their life along with their parents.
  I broke a law here or there like most teens have done over the years, and when I acted like an ass and wanted to do stuff like an ‚Äúadult‚Äù of sorts, if I got caught I expected to be treated like an adult.  What I‚Äôm getting at is simple ‚Äì want to act like an adult ‚Äì then expect to be treated like one. If you mouth off to my mother or my wife when they‚Äôre walking around the block to get some exercise, minding their own business, then you better damn well expect I‚Äôll be looking for you when I get home.
  You want to talk like an adult, and use profanity and disrespect someone, you will get your ass kicked like you were an adult.  If you do something to my home or my vehicle, I won‚Äôt care if you‚Äôre 13 or 18 ‚Äì I will assume you want to be treated like an adult and I will respond in kind.
  If wannabe tough teens want to drive in from outside the city or even from up the block ‚Äì and wreck the kiddie swings and taunt a young mother with a baby in the stroller or throw something through someone‚Äôs window or off their car – it shouldn‚Äôt surprise you that someone like me won‚Äôt be asking how old you are while we are knocking your teeth out onto the ground.  If that‚Äôs what it takes to get some respect in our neighborhoods and teach a small amount of today‚Äôs teens what it‚Äôs like to act like a rational human being, then welcome to 2006.  Same as 1956 and 1966 and 1976 ‚Äì you get the point.
  Passing an ordinance to keep teens out of parks is the wrong thing to do though.  The city should not get involved with this issue at all.  I would like to think that teens even today would think before they acted and if they want to drink in the park late at night (oh tell me none of you ever did that and I‚Äôll call you a liar) or act like general asses disrespecting the neighborhood and the people who live there, then they should expect to be told to go home by the cops doing their jobs once in a while and you know what – don‚Äôt be completely surprised when some father or husband or young adult or even another kid walks up to you and knocks you out.
  Act like a disrespecting asshole, expect to be treated that way ‚Äì period.