Don't Blame the Children

by Opal Sink

We read in the papers and hear on the air

of killing and stealing and crimes everywhere.

We sigh and we say as we notice the trend

"This young generation, where will it end?"

But can we be sure it is their fault alone

that maybe a part of it isn't our own?

Are we less guilty who place in their way

so many things that lead them astray?

Too much money to spend, too much idle time,

Too many movies of passion and crime.

Too many books not fit to be read,

Nobody home when it's time for the bed.

Too many children encouraged to roam

by too many parents who won't stay at home.

Kids don't make the movies, they don't write the books,

that paint gay pictures of gangsters and crooks.

They don't make the liquor, they don't run the bars,

they don't make the law, they don't buy the cars.

They don't peddle the drugs that addle the brain,

that's all done by older folks greedy for gain.

Delinquent teenagers, oh how we condemn them!

The sins of the nation, we blame all on them.

The laws of the blameless-the Savior made known,

who is there among us to cast the first stone?

For, in so many cases, it's sad but its true,

the title "delinquent" fits older folks too.