Young People

Maybe you thought this "respect" thing was all about macho teenagers responding to some personal offense with some violent act. You'd have been right - but only partially. In recent weeks, the idea of respect - or disrespect - has been part of an effort to understand why there is so much more killing in Baltimore this year. There's something to the intensely personal side of the respect question, says Philip Leaf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has made a long study of gun violence in Baltimore and elsewhere.

Next September, a Washington National Opera performance of Puccini's evergreen La Boheme at the Kennedy Center will be seen simultaneously by audiences at high schools and colleges around the country, as well as outdoors on the Mall and in two D.C.-area movie theaters -- all free of charge. "Everybody is trying revolutionary ways to bring opera to more people," Placido Domingo, the famed tenor and general director of the WNO, said yesterday in an interview at the Kennedy Center. "This is terrific.

On a stage filled with the professionally silver-tongued (preachers and politicians), before an audience of the demonstrably articulate (community activists and even the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch), Tony Dantzler had no trouble being heard. Seen - maybe. He's a little on the short side, even for 13. Like others at the candidates forum held Sunday by the civic group BUILD, Tony called for more rec centers, more summer jobs for teens and more affordable housing. But while other speakers wielded charts, questionnaire results and budget figures to make their cases, Tony merely wielded his own experience.

With apologies to the esteemed Diane Rehm of National Public Radio, please join us for Susan's Tuesday news roundup, during which a roundtable of her multiple personalities, each representing a different mood, will dissect the headlines. Doping scandals in the Tour de France. Gambling among NBA refs. Dog-fighting in the highest reaches of NFL stardom. And suspected steroid abuse by a home-run record-challenger. And nothing but yawns from the fans over what one sportswriter described as the "shocking nadir" of professional sports.

The sound of more than a thousand singing voices spilled out the doors of St. Casimir Church in Canton yesterday afternoon as 10 young people emerged into the sunshine carrying a 10-foot wooden cross on their shoulders. Cardinal William H. Keeler, archbishop of Baltimore, emerged next with several other members of the clergy. And then hundreds of young Catholics poured out onto the sidewalk and started proceeding down the street. Mae Richardson, coordinator of youth ministry for Sacred Heart Parish of Glyndon, looked at the noisy, briskly moving sea of young people stretching for blocks along the edge of Patterson Park.

Ask any of your friends to name one sociological statistic, and I bet this is the one you will get: 50 percent of marriages end in divorce. Our kids probably think the figure is higher. Many of them have friends whose parents are separated or divorced. Children must think divorce is contagious, like the flu. But it isn't true. Half of all marriages don't end in divorce. Only half of some marriages end in divorce. There are ways to prevent divorce, and I am not talking about marriage counseling or sharing the chores or using "I" messages to diffuse arguments.

It's tough being a young professional in Baltimore. Actually, anywhere, for that matter. That's according to local economist Anirban Basu, who spoke to a group of 20-something professionals on the economics of being young at an event last week sponsored by the Maryland Business Council. The reason? "In today's policymaking environment, young people are treated so poorly," argues Basu, chairman and chief executive of Sage Policy Group Inc., a Baltimore economic and policy consulting firm.

QUICHE LORRAINE, Swedish meatballs, pierogies (dumplings), guacamole, Kasspatzle, French pickled vegetables and apple strudel were spread out on the buffet table.But the party was not in Europe or Central America. It was in Glenelg.Thirty au pairs living and working in Central Maryland gathered two weeks ago for a multicultural holiday pot-luck dinner. The young people came to the United States for a year to live with American families and care for their children.Shelly Altman, a coordinator for Au Pair USA, was the party's hostess.

EVERYBODY -- BY WHICH I mean "not you" -- is getting rich off the Internet. We are constantly seeing stories in the media about young Internet entrepreneurs who look like they should be mowing lawns for spending money, except that they have the same net worth as Portugal.Six months ago, they were college students, sitting around their dorms, trying to figure out what body part to pierce next; now they're the CEOs of Something-Dot-Com, and they're buying mansions, jets, camels, etc., not to mention Van Gogh and Renoir (I'm not talking about their paintings; I'm talking about their actual corpses)

THIS PAST summer, Dr. David Satcher, the U.S. surgeon general, identified suicide as a major public health threat and unveiled a comprehensive program to reduce suicides nationwide.Recently, he shed much-needed light on this tragedy by testifying in the first Senate hearings on suicide. Aside from the high-profile cases, such as the Columbine High School tragedy, suicide is not a hot subject for many news organizations, even though it has claimed far more lives in America for decades than homicides.

The war on cigarettes is heating up. Last week a new federal ban went into effect making flavored cigarettes and cloves illegal. The new regulation halted the sale of vanilla, chocolate and other sweet-flavored cigarettes that anti-smoking advocates claim lure young people into smoking. This ban is the first major crackdown since Congress passed a law in June giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco. There is talk of banning Menthol cigarettes next. Meanwhile, a report to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg from the city's health commissioner called for a smoking ban at city parks and beaches to help protect citizens from the harms of secondhand smoke.

Adolescence is a critical time - it is just that simple. In homes across America, parents are feeling pressure to hurry up and prepare teens to be independent. In popular culture, teenagers are characterized as being all about hormones and rebellion. In reality, "adolescence" is a widening span of life from about age 12 to the early to mid-20s. It encompasses both "youth" and "emerging adulthood" and involves some of the most complex biological, cognitive and social changes in human development - second, perhaps, only to early childhood development.

1 A 5-year-old girl remained in critical condition Friday after being hit by a stray bullet while walking home with a relative after a shopping trip. The child, who has not been officially identified but whom an aunt said was named Raven, was on a ventilator and in pediatric intensive care at the University of Maryland Medical Center, a hospital representative said. Family members were at her side. She suffered a head wound and was bleeding from the mouth, said a neighbor who attempted to comfort the child after the shooting.

Here's another conversation parents didn't know they had to have with their kids: Don't send nude photos of yourself out into cyberspace. Too late. They are. A survey of teens and young adults released last week reported that one in five teens - and a third of 20-somethings - have electronically sent or posted online nude or semi-nude pictures or video of themselves. Even more - 40 percent of teens and 60 percent of young adults - are "sexting," sending raunchy messages via text, e-mail or instant message to each other.

Baltimore hopes to place 6,500 young people in summer jobs next year, with a goal that every young person who wants to work has a chance, said Bishop Douglas I. Miles, co-chairman of the city's YouthWorks program. "Investment in our young people pays dividends now by providing opportunities for them to earn honest wages rather then having to turn to street-corner hustling," said Miles, who heads Koinonia Baptist Church, during a City Hall news conference yesterday. Next year's goal is the same as last summer's - which was met - officials said.

With the formal rezoning process for central Columbia's redevelopment about to begin, a group of young, business-oriented Howard County residents has stepped into the nearly five-year-old discussion. Called Columbia 2.0, the new group drew about 25 people to a news conference yesterday on the parking lot of The Mall in Columbia, a short distance from a restaurant where David Yungmann, 41, a Columbia real estate agent and one of three leaders, began the event. "We wanted to highlight how hard it is to walk from there to here," Yungmann said, explaining that his group wants to involve more young people in the discussion and push for the kind of redevelopment plan proposed by General Growth Properties Inc., the Chicago-based firm that bought the Rouse Co. "The status quo is not an option," Yungmann said, noting how difficult it is to move around Town Center's vast parking lots on foot.

Enriching youths pays big dividends The Sun's article "Enriching parks and self-esteem" (July 23) offered welcome recognition of the fact that, despite the challenges and threats city youths face, the majority of our city's young people welcome the opportunity to work hard and improve their communities. The article correctly notes that programs such as the Civic Justice Corps helps get those youths "off the streets." I would add that these programs also provide essential job skills that will prepare Baltimore youths for jobs in the emerging green economy that are vital to creating a cleaner and greener Baltimore.

An investigation into the beating death of a young Eastern Shore man early yesterday in Berlin continues, with authorities interviewing people of interest in the killing, a spokesman for the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation said. Sgt. Timothy Keen, the spokesman, said no charges have been placed in the death of Michael Mitchell, 19, of Berlin. Mitchell was beaten with an unknown object about 4:30 a.m. at President Circle and Dueling Road, in the Decatur Farms community of the town, during a fight that erupted while several young people celebrated graduating from high school, Keen said.

Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration has met its goal of finding summer jobs for 6,500 students this year but is still seeking commitments from local businesses to secure positions for about 120 young people, city officials said yesterday. With weeks to go before school ends in Baltimore next month, the city is pushing for businesses to hire the remaining students for the city's YouthWorks program - an effort that proponents said keeps minors off the street and gives them valuable workplace experience.

Peer programs offer hope for the schools It is important for readers to understand that Peer to Peer Enterprises are community-based programs - not ones based in or associated with a particular school ("Students end their protest at City Hall," May 16). For instance, the Algebra Project has sites in several schools, but projects such as Unchained Talent and Wide Angle Youth Media and Kids on the Hill are not based in schools. They attract young people from across the city. Although Mayor Sheila Dixon says the school system, and not the city, should pay for the peer-to-peer work, there is no way the school system will invest in groups that are not part of schools.