Once When We Were Free 

We're so much more sensible now. We don't live our lives as much as we arrange them and organize them. B follows A. D follows C. We take our medicne and our shots, because the doctor says so. We're careful, because accidents happen.
We don't say what is on our minds a lot of the time, because other people might pass that on, and who knows? We might get into trouble. But once upon a time, when we were young, we were free. We didn't take any shots and when we got sick we recovered. We were stronger than kids now. We didn't ask for much protection and we weren't given much, and we survived. There was no talk about the needs of the group. When we went to school, we weren't told about ways we could help others. That was something we learned at home. We wern't taught about The Planet. Instead, we learned to mind our own business, and it wasn't considered a crime. When we played games, adults weren't hovering or coaching every move we made. We found places to play on our own, and we figured it all out. There were winners and losers. There were no plastic trophys. We played one game, then another. We lost, we won. We competed. Losing wasn't a tragedy. There were no childhood conditions like ADHD or Bipolar, and we certainly didn't take any brain drugs. The idea of a kid going to a psychiatrist would have beeen absurd. People were who they were. They had lives. They had personalities. They had eccentricities, and we lived with that. There was far less whispering and gossip. There were fewer cliques. Kids didn't display their posssessions like signs of their idenity. A kid who did was ignored, even shunned. Our parents didn't consult us about what we wanted. We weren't part of the decision making process. They didn't need us for that. No one asked us about our feelings. I remember one Christmas when my mom and dad got me a Dale Evans cow girl suit. I hated it. I put up such a fuss and said "I didn't ask for that". I found myself in bed all day Christmas with a spanking to boot. That was the last time I pulled a trick like that. If two candidates are running for office, and we don't like either one, we don't vote. We don't need to think about that very hard. It's obvious. Two idiots, two criminals? Forget it. Walk away. We don't think children are the future. Every generation is a new generation. It always has been.
When we were young, we had incredible dreams. We imagined the dreams and imagined accomplishments then. Some of us still do. Some of us still work in that direction. We haven't given up the ghost just because the world is mad.
THE WORLD NEEDS TO LEARN WHAT WE KNOW. WE DON"T NEED TO LEARN WHAT THE WORLD HAS BEEN BRAINWASHED INTO BELIEVING.