by Thomas Mackert

Created on: May 23, 2008

I remember growing up of the time my brother and I were in the backyard playing catch with a baseball. He was facing the house and I was facing the back fence because I had the occasional wild throw. We had used our heads I remember thinking because the alternative was the sure sound of glass breaking and the deep sound of my fathers voice screaming expletives as he began his search for the culprit. Having five brothers and two sisters, he had many to choose from. Well, then the unthinkable happened. The ball sailed a good 5-6' over my head followed by what sounded like an explosion as the ball pierced the double pain glass of the kitchen window. My brother immediately started racing around the yard screaming "I'm dead, I'm dead" as he looked for a shovel to dig his own grave and bury himself just like Daffy Duck in the old Loony Toons cartoons. I knew he really wasn't gonna die, but my father was going to be very upset. It was that fear of what my father was gonna do that was hurting him more than the belt or being grounded for weeks(or months in this case) or just hearing him yell. We were 9 and 11 years old.

It is with that memory among others that firmly put me behind our children visiting and or touring prisons. Critics will say that it is not an environment that our children should witness. What is going to be accomplished by our children witnessing men and women behind bars with most of they're freedoms left outside concrete walls and razor wire fences? FEAR.

When you look at kids today, you don't see fear as my brother had that afternoon. My fiances son broke the very expensive tail light on her car one day. He continued doing what he was doing until he decided to come in and tell her and he still acted like it wasn't a big deal. Of all the things people want to hide they're children from these days are things that taught us right from wrong, not to mention built character. Taking responsibility for your actions is one of the first things a teenager should be aware of before he hits the real world.

My feeling is that kids today are so over protected that they are missing out on things that are going to prepare them for whats really out there. They also loose respect for authority figures as well as adults in general. Before, we were smacked, yelled at or grounded. Today they are sent to they're rooms with a computer, game console and an ipod. Today they are medicated when they are a little wild. We were told no more soda the rest of the day. If I swore

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