Entitlement Solution

Reading in the Chicago Tribune this morning about a group of Winnetka kids who basically moved into an unoccupied home, used it as a party house and did some damage. About ten grand worth, according to the owner's attorney.

Right after that was an article about seniors at Deerfield High School hazing freshmen (although parents of the seniors deny it happened). All of this comes on the heels of what I wrote about yesterday...the teenage Deerfield girl who went missing over last weekend, prompting some 2 thousand people to look for her...only to turn up the next night and have her parents withhold the information about where she had been and what she was doing.

Entitlement amongst the rich is not a new issue on the North Shore where I live. Most of the time we just shrug it off. Ever since two Deerfield High School students died in a rollover crash after an alcohol soaked homecoming party a couple of years ago, I don't shrug.

I get angry.

That party became news because the parents of the teens who held it claimed they had no idea alcohol was being served. A judge believed differently. Ironically, during the trial, one of the teen girls who testified against the parents was arrested the night she gave her testimony for being drunk/high at another party.

The stories go on and on. And parents keep denying their children have done anything wrong. After all, why should children be taught to to accept responsibility for their actions? Parents don't have time for such nonsense nowadays. They have parties of their own to attend. After all, as a besotted dad bragged to me at the scene of a DUI crash that killed one of his son's classmates, "I pay taxes so teachers and cops can deal with my little creep."

I've come up with a solution to the entitlement problem and I'm inviting any legislator who believes they have the required cojones to help me enact it into law.

We'll call it the Teenage Entitlement Act of 2009.

My proposal provides that any young person convicted of crimes based in feelings of entitlement (ie: feeling they have the absolute right to do whatever they wish and acting on it by trashing a house, stealing, drinking and driving, disappearing for 24 hours and prompting an areawide search, causing pain and suffering to others in any fashion just because their parents never taught them how to behave like adults) would face a specific punishment, to wit: (a) required enlistment in any branch of the armed services they choose with (b) mandated immediate deployment to a combat role in a war zone. The law would also provide that, for every teen convicted and deployed, a soldier/sailor/marine/Coastie/airman already serving in the conflict would be allowed to come home.

Obviously this would deal with the problem on two levels.

Children would rapidly learn not only to accept responsibility for their actions but to take responsibility for the lives of their peers. And parents who have never really given a crap about how they raise their children would learn (hopefully) to worry about their kids for once. Really worry.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Because parents would not be permitted to use their clout to get an easier posting for their kid, we'd probably lose a few scions of wealthy families. But hey, wouldn't it be better that they die as heroes in war, perhaps while acting selflessly to save their comrades, (think Medal of Honor...) rather than be known for eternity as the dumbass drunk driver who managed to kill themselves and some innocents on the highway? Or as "that dumb freshman who drank himself to death at a frat party?"

Want to end entitlement in our lifetimes? Write your lawmakers. Let's get this bill drawn and passed.