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Proyecto Visión 21

A young generation concerned about asteroids and ID theft

A few days ago, to escape from the city during a few hours, we went with my family to a park in Colorado Rocky Mountains. At the park, a group of four or five girls not older than 8 or 9 were playing. What one of the girls said immediately caught my attention.

It seems the girls were playing to jump on one foot and at the time jumping each girl said a letter of her name. Then, when all the letters have been said, the girl will stop hopping and said her name aloud. Or at least that was the original intention of the game.

Whatever the case, when the group of girls was near where I was sitting, one of the girls stopped jumping and was about to say her name aloud when another girl, certainly older than the first one, said, “I told you not to say your name aloud because somebody may steal your identity.”

The girls then moved away and I was left with the thought of what kind of society we are building when not even little girls can innocently play their games due to the fear they may become victims of a crime, in this case, identify theft.

I thought little girls were more concerned about being little girls than about avoiding being victims of identity theft. It is true that in other parts of the world there are boys and girls who, far from worrying about ID theft, are worried about things like eating and staying alive. In fact, each day 30,000 children die of hunger somewhere on earth.

It is true, then, that we must express our solidarity in a practical way with those children anywhere in the world who need a friendly hand to live and eat.

But, at the same time, we should also remember to express our solidarity with children in our own country who are losing their childhood not because they lack food or shelter, but because they are now more concerned about being victims of criminals than playing their games.

Playing is one of the basic elements for the socialization of children. If that interaction loses its playfulness and the play is replaced by the awareness of social problems and criminal activities, then the game loses its socializing power, with all the consequences that situation creates.

Then, a few days later, I happened to hear a conversation my teenage son had with some of his friends. The conversation was about the possibility of an asteroid impacting earth during the next few years. The teenagers talked about the futility of thinking about the future or even going to college if an asteroid could destroy or disrupt our civilization.

Both examples show children and teenagers experience physical and existential insecurity, feeling they can’t freely express themselves, not even among friends, because of the fear of being victims of criminals, and thinking about the future perhaps is now irrelevant, because the world as we know it may end soon.

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