What's happening to today's kids?

So it's really no secret that I detest 90% of teenagers and young people. I have no tolerance for people who blatantly disregard and disrespect authority and their elders. I also have no tolerance for the parents of these hooligans who just don't give a crap about what their kids do, where they go, or how they act.

I love reality shows and the like, so I've been watching a lot of Most Daring on TRUtv. There are always clips of teenagers doing stupid, dangerous, cruel, and illegal things. The episode I just watched was entitled "Young and Dangerous" and it sickened me like you wouldn't believe. Kids with guns, holding up stores. Kids beating the crap out of each other so badly that someone loses consciousness and the aggressor runs off, leaving the victim on the ground. Kids running from cops, endangering everyone on the road. If I didn't watch as many of these shows, or read as much of the newspapers as I do, I would think all this stuff was made up, but it's not. I even witnessed 3 teenagers steal some guy's iPod on a MUNI train in San Francisco last year. When the victim ran after them to try to get it back, 2 of them (one a girl) turned and beat the crap out of the guy.

What the fuck is wrong with these kids? What the fuck is wrong with their parents? Where the hell are their parents? Where the hell is any good influence in their life?

Honestly, as much as I detest teenagers, I am also scared of them. I don't know if one is going to think I looked at them wrong when I'm walking through the mall and they decide to follow me and beat the crap out of me. I can't pick the good one from the bad one, so I just assume they're all bad. I know that's horrible of me to do, but given all I've witnessed in my life, I have no reason to like teenagers.

All I can boil it down to is absentee parents. It makes me sad, too, to know that these kids don't know right from wrong because they didn't have good influences in their lives. It's sad to know these kids will, most likely, be in and out of jail most of their lives. And it's down right depressing knowing that they don't think any higher of themselves. They think that they are just destined to be criminals and low lifes because no one has ever told them they were a good kid or told them they had potential to be something great.

And it hurts because I can't do anything about it. I can't fix them all. I can't fix even a lot of them. But, maybe one day, I can help even just one. I think once the babies come, I'm gonna try to go back to school and do social work.

It's never too late for college, right?