Mandatory Service.

[Zzarchov]

I find most people who are in favour of mandatory service seem to magically be past the cut-off date.

"Kids of Today" seems to be a recurring theme too. But if you look at the numbers, "Kids of today" are better behaved than kids have ever been since records of child delinquincy have been kept, well over a hundred years. They are merely more prominent in the media now then before.

Kids used to be violent and unkept, the baby boomer generation especially. Back in the 50's gang membership and gang warfare were exponentially greater than today.

Every block had their own VIOLENT gang back then. And lets not even talk about racial violence.
When was the last time a group of white kids rounding up some minorities and beat them to death in your town? Was it within the last year? Was it even anywhere near your town?

Im all for Mandatory service though, as long as the age limit rockets up like in the US (42) and/or you can't vote until you've completed your mandatory service.

But Im quite against an older generation forcing the younger one (whos already forced to pay for the older generations retirement..without getting one of their own) to do something else they never had to.

 

[Tonington]

Well, when I was a kid, there weren't gangs of young kids going around randomly beating people on city buses, the streets and such. It was a rare event when I heard anything like that, and usually an isolated event. The term used is called swarming, and it happened lots in Halifax in the past two years, though I haven't heard of any recently.

 

[Zzarchov]

Actually Tonington, its rare now..Its just on the news now, where as before it was distatsteful to show.

it was ALOT more common before. And Gangs were ALOT more common, from the Mid fifties to Late seventies were the boom time of the Gangs.

Its historical record, you can check. Don't assume because you didn't see a gang growing up means they weren't there. I never saw a Gang growing up in the 90's, not one, nor knew anybody in one. Doesn't mean there are none at all.

My mom grew up in the 60's/70's and never saw drugs as a teenager..it would be foolish of me to think that meant they were rare.

 

[Tonington]

I'm not so ignorant to believe that they weren't around because I didn't see them. I am just speaking from my own experience, in the short time from when I was a 16 year old to now, I've seen a steady increase in the amount of disrespect. I speant my time in pool halls, doing drugs, getting drunk during school, I saw all sorts of things, what I didn't see was this disrespect I'm talking about. It has become rampant. And that's on only 9 years that I've witnessed this, as I wasn't around before that I can't testify to gangs in the 70s, or to whether or not this is some kind of cyclical pattern, I very much doubt it though.

 

[Zzarchov]

Disrespect may very well be up, but if it is, its almost certainly because youth violence is drastically down.

Its alot easier to be disrespectful when you won't have your throat slit and left in a ditch for doing so.

My advice to those who don't like disrepect is grow up. You aren't entitled to the respect of others, at no point should you be forcing how others think of you. Free speech means people saying things to you you don't like. The Freedom to not be violently assaulted or murdered has its prices.

Saudi Arabia is very respectful place, very polite and very well mannered. And all it takes is violent and brutal reprisals for even the slightest mess up.

I'll take Disrespect , Safety and Liberty over Politeness, Violence and Opression anyday.

 

[Tonington]

Specifically, the disrespect I was referring to was violence. How these youngsters don't respect a persons right to go on about their business without being harassed or beaten.

 

[Tonington]

BTW, youth violence is not down, it is increasing. Check out Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada's website.