Young People

Why rob banks? Depression era bank robber Willie Sutton's supposed answer to this question is legendary because of its irrefutable logic: "Because that's where the money is. " The late Mr. Sutton's simple quip about criminality is remembered and repeated by succeeding generations when situation at hand calls for a reality check. Such is the case when the question increasing police presence in Harford County Public Schools is raised. Why put more police in the schools? Because that's where the at-risk population is for eight or more hours a day for about 180 days each year.

It has been one month since the devastating tragedy in Newtown, Conn., and most of us are still trying to come to grips with the events of that terrible day. When gun violence rips through a community it is always hard to bear, but when the victims of the violence are innocent children, it is unbearable. We are left wondering how so many young lives could be taken so quickly, and how we can prevent it from happening again. In our national search for answers, many have understandably been drawn to solutions that might reduce a perpetrator's ability to kill multiple people in short order: restrictions on high-capacity magazines and semi-automatic assault rifles like the Bushmaster .223 used by Adam Lanza.

We no longer have children or kids or teenagers or young people. We used to have them, but now we just have youth .  Youth  used to be a singular, that thing that is wasted on the young, or the individual in the Sydney Smith screed about taxation: "The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven...

After the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, what's needed is more gun control, according to columnist Dan Rodricks ("The massacre this time," Dec. 15). Yet a story in the same edition described a man in China who used a knife to attack some 20 children. The problem is not the weapon, but the troubled young men who wield them. It is a daunting, if not impossible task for psychiatrists, psychologists and others to take the first step in situations where even parents are frustrated and helpless in dealing with a troubled child.

Contrary to Marc Kilmer's letter ("Don't enable Md.'s addiction to cigarette tax revenue," Dec. 6), Maryland's 2007 dollar-per-pack cigarette tax increase significantly reduced teen smoking and saved lives. Between 2008 when the law took effect and the next time a survey of teen smoking was taken in 2010, smoking among teens in Maryland dropped from 15.3 percent to 14.1 percent, saving thousands of Maryland young people from the horrors of tobacco addiction. For a personal account of how this tax increase saved lives, Mr. Kilmer should read the commentary that appeared in The Sun several months ago written by the Rev. Fred Weimert, the board chair of the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council ("Cigarette taxes saved my kids' lives," Aug. 30)

In Maryland, 93,000 teens and young adults are neither working nor in school, a trend that threatens future financial stability and predicts chronic joblessness, advocates said Monday. And unemployment among those ages 16 to 24 is the highest in the country since World War II, a Kids Count policy report shows. Patrick McCarthy, president of the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation that compiles the Kids Count data, said young people, without education or experience, are the least likely to find jobs in a stagnant economy.

The Catholic hierarchy is, sad to say, shamefully deficient in the theology of their own church. During the recent election campaign, some bishops embarrassed themselves by their loathsome meddling in partisan politics. They presented their opinions as the "teaching of the church," in opposition to both a growing consensus among theologians and the developing belief of the faithful. Unremembered, apparently, are the failures of their predecessors who spoke out against the women's suffrage amendment using the same fantastic arguments of danger to children's welfare and peril to family structure and harmony.

I respect the motives of those who wish to raise Maryland's cigarette tax ("Activists want dollar boost in cigarette taxes," Nov. 15). However, such an increase would make it increasingly worthwhile for Maryland smokers to travel to neighboring, lower-tax state for their purchases. The priority should be a on fairer, more effective way to reduce cigarette smoking - by raising the legal tobacco age to 21. That would interpose three more years of maturity, and three more years' receipt of society's widespread anti-tobacco messages, before young people could legally buy cigarettes.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson came to Baltimore on Nov. 8 to propose a reallocation of $70 million in funds currently allocated by the state for a new juvenile jail. Jackson, City Council President Jack Young, local ministers and others organizers of the event at the War Memorial were advocating for a reallocation in favor of "affirmative opportunities. " Such opportunities include proven alternatives to detention: recreational activities, jobs programs and neighborhood redevelopment, all aimed at changing daily life for Baltimore youth.

The second term victory for President Barack Obama proves that there is opportunity for candidates of all types of race, ethnicity and gender throughout the country. This gives people an opportunity that they never thought they had. The intent is not to rub mud in the face of the majority population. But we must admit to ourselves that President Obama won because of the support of many different demographics. I think that this brings America to the realization that all people are created equal and have opportunities to be in leadership positions.