Some pompous advice for n'er do wells

 Almost everyday I read in the newspaper about young fools

    ruining their lives, getting long jail sentences, getting death sentences

    - all because of a moment of madness. Healthy and lusty young bodies -

    promising minds - to rot for eternity in a human zoo !

              Is there some simple PRACTICAL advice we middle aged cranks

    can offer the the young hotbloods before they " cross over " to the

    hellish, hopeless world of the living dead - the American prison system :

               ALL HOPE ABANDON YE WHO ENTER HERE !

          I myself can only come up with  a dusty old slogan : " The devil

    finds work for idle hands to. "   It seems to me that the luckiest kids

    have some passionate hobby, some constructive INTEREST , some worthy

    GOAL that saves them from despair when their life begins to go off

    course - through no fault of their own. In some ways BOREDOM is the

    root of all evil.

                The tragedy of so many kids is that they are surrounded -

    not just by so many other dumb kids, but by too many clueless adults.

               Imagine having to grow up without an  encounter with one

    adult who has his or her head together, who can pass on some WISDOM

    to a fresh generation.

                  TV is cultivating a new generation of baboons. Often

    on the bus I  fail to see even one young face with spark in it, a

    lively curiosity, a hint of a bright future.

               You don't have to be a gypsy fortune teller to SEE the

    future of these  neglected and self-neglected kids : Those same dead

    eyes now staring out from behind steel bars at the ACI.