Something really made my world a little brighter today.

Children are becoming so smart with every coming generation.

They know so much, and can use such devices of logic...  The likes of which our parents, and grandparents, before us probably would not, or could not, have used when they were developing throughout their elementary and higher grades.

This of course means they can see through other children.  Or they can spot out a most humorous aspect in an event, person, or situation.  Some children can handle this.  Other children cannot.  Some roll with the punches and see it for what it truly is: the playful teasing of childhood, albeit raised to a more cerebral, mentally scathing level. 

Others become depressed.  And the range of reactions to this have been well-documented in the media...  From private, self-inflicted despair...  To Columbine, to Columbus, and to Lancaster, Pennsylvannia.

I think few topics could get more progressive than this: we as a society have got to take it a little more easy on each other (as cliche'd and movie-scripted as this may sound...  Indeed, I think I'm paraphrasing Tina Fey from "Mean Girls"). 

Between divorce just becoming a fact of life nowadays; parents being forced to work more and more hours, and thus their children being left alone with no one to really talk to, advise, and emotionally support them; and young adults who have grown up as damaged children, now damaging the lives of their love interests, or in worse cases, their own children they have created too soon, in their search for comfort and love...

The sociological progression from the industrial age, to post-war, to cold war, to Vietnam, to 80s excess, and into today... has seen this world become increasingly individualized.  Every soul now fends for themselves.  Everything's just gotten bigger, and more separated.

We simply cannot afford to go out into the world anymore, without a greater amount of understanding and empathy, because as each generation grows smarter, from a more informed, communication-efficient world, it also grows more and more socioeconomically divided.  People who feel misunderstood feel pain.  And sadly, there are less and less people around to cushion their pain. 

Cops and security guards at Elementary and High Schools are only the first tiptoe of big steps that have to be made to prevent these child-massacres.  A major step is inside of us.  There needs to be more empathy/ sympathy about where an individual --- who seems vastly different, and as such, perhaps "inferior" to another who neglects to find understanding --- understanding, about where that person is coming from.

I was attacked here at ProU, for being vaccuous, today and/ or yesterday.  I was outpouring the stresses of my heart, because unlike when I was a child, I no longer wish to burden the ears of my friends.  (I'll try not to burden our Community, I promise!)  Someone aired their concerns in a less-than-positive way.  I felt stupid. 

Someone else...  Stood up for me.  And it made me so happy to have gotten out of bed this morning, which depending on the day, may or may not be a struggle.  I entertained my critic's assumptions, and tried to remember to leave self-absorption behind, and make my voice relevant to a medium that wishes to be a thought-provoking representation of students.  He, as I pleaded, extended his olive branch.

There is hope...  That through intellect...  Conflict and pain can be resolved.

If this isn't what ProgressiveU was for, I do not know what is.

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