The recent riots up in Baltimore disturbed me quite a bit. I can’t fathom what gets in the heads of residents that makes them destroy their own city. It makes no sense at all. And it’s not just in Baltimore. In 2000 and again in 2010, there were riots in L.A. after the Lakers won the NBA championship. I recall back in ’98 when the Broncos won the Super Bowl, there was rioting in Denver. This was back before marijuana was legal, but how does this crazy behavior occur in normally peaceful citizens?
As I sit upon my balcony looking out on a rain-drenched Padre Island, I begin to ponder over this dilemma. What makes young folks today go ape-caca and start destroying their own hometown? Back when I was a young man, you’d see stuff on TV about peaceful demonstrations like “sit-ins” and even something called a “love-in”. College kids would peacefully fuss about stuff that gets in their craws, and then they’d run out of dope and Cheetos and call it quits. No property damage or injuries, just a mess of empty Fritos wrappers and Old Milwaukee cans.
Hmm? I think I just figured out why today’s kids (at my age, anyone under the age of 35 is still considered a kid) are so angry and destructive. It’s the music they listen to. That hip-hop or rap crap that young-uns listen to these days is often performed by hoodlums. Artists (really?) like Eminem, Public Enemy and some fine group of men calling themselves Bone Thugs-n-Harmony rap about popping a cap into someone or slapping around some poor gal. I s’pose there are some nice hip-hop songs, but so many appear to promote violence.
