Columbia Law Students ‘Traumatized’ by Police Response to Protests

Demanding that finals be canceled because they chose to protest, how utterly clueless are the youth of our country?

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

I don’t want to make this one of those generational rants where the “old man” — the old man in this story is supposedly me — talks about the “kids” and how they don’t understand anything. I remember hearing the WWII vets in my youth talking about how “kids these days have it so easy.” We did, and they had it easy, too, in comparison. So, this is not about having it easy or not easy.

It’s about dealing with reality and the unexpected, un-pre-programmed bends and curves embedded in reality. By the mere nature of it, conflict is one of those sweeping bends that often lie just ahead of us in life. Many of today’s youth (let’s say between 15 and 30) are not well practiced in dealing with the unregulated, unpredictable ups-and-downs of people-to-people, in-your-face situations that occur daily.

I wrote about sitting in a cafe in Porto last year when a 20-something traveling American student struck up a conversation with me. We got to Biden, and she made a comment that was one she expected, with which I would agree. I was supposed to roll my eyes, nod my head, and say something like, “Right?” I…