The Generation Debate

We have all seen the movies where old people are yelling at kids to stay off their lawns and just giving everyone mean looks in general. After seeing these examples I started paying closer attention to older people and they act and react to people. The first person I thought of was my grandmother. She is 94 now, which means she has been "older" for a while. My memories of her are not those of anger and grouchiness, but kindness mixed with southern grit. I have seen other elderly people though whom are downright nasty. They never have a smile on their faces and if you are 18 and younger you're done for.

The issue I see between young and old is simply a lack of respect on both ends. The young could do well in valuing the experiences and advice the older generations have to offer, while the seniors could do a little bit better being more opened minded and not seeing the world through their own lens all of the time.

I suppose people who are mean-spirited just didn't become that way overnight. They have probably been that way most of their lives and growing older could have made the problem worse. There are young people who are just as nasty and unless they make drastic changes they will grow older with the same mentality. I can see the older generations looking at the youth with contempt because of the current state of society. I can see the youth looking at the old thinking their time is done and what they have to offer is minimal.