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Gen Z’ers Are Not Monsters
They may be displaying reckless behavior as they pack the beaches, but we need to put their behavior in context
A lot of people are furious about college kids going about their Spring break as though the world is not experiencing a pandemic. As they pack the beaches in Florida, the ire of citizens everywhere is pointed at their selfishness. They are not only endangering themselves but the whole population with their unwillingness to take this crisis seriously.
I get it. I feel pretty mad at them, too. But I started thinking about something that made me soften a little. These kids are behaving the way they are to a great degree because they have become hardened to threats and danger. They have had to.
This generation of kids has never lived in a time that mass school shootings were not a threat. They have suffered the loss of innocence that so many of us enjoyed, who were raised in a kinder, gentler time. ( Okay, I know it wasn’t really, but at least we didn’t fear for our lives every day we went to school.)
These children have watched the adults in this country sit back and do nothing to make their world safer, as we pander to gun lobbies and gun manufacturers. We have more or less said to them, “Sorry kids. This is just the way it is. Hate it for…
