Visualize Whirled Peas

Do you remember that wordplay from the late 1980's - vizualize whirled peas? Whatever happened to that vision for world peace? It was the mantra of the Pepsi Generation and those teeangers standing around a big evergreen tree cheerily teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony in the Coke commercial. Was it the real thing or have we just given up on that vision?


We are fighting for democritization of the Middle East, but I don't recall anyone's having mentioned world peace as part of the deal, or even whirled peas. And, I don't think I recall hearing the words "world peace" come out of a teenager's mouth since the mid 1990's. Maybe teens simply are not as naive as we once were.


But, I just got home from a wonderful evening at China King Restaurant with the members of Muskogee High School Asian Club, of which I am the sponsor. If these kids are any indication of young people around the world, it makes me wonder why world peace isn't possible.


This invasion of youth included Koreans, Spaniards, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Chinese, Mexicans, Swiss, Hindus, and Americans of all ethnicities. They laughed and told stories, ate with chop sticks, read their fortune cookies, and took pictures of each other.


Ok, so it's not cool to be a peace-nik in this day and age of doing stupid, pointless acts that can be video-ed with a cell phone and posted on YouTube. Maybe the virtual world has rendered the real one, with its ugly genocides in Darfur and Sudan and threats of war elsewhere, unimportant to this generation.


It's hard to analyze right now, but a definite shift is coming. I'm not going to say these teens will be asking for world peace tomorrow, but I do think there is a movement to hold the rest of their generation accountable. There is a growing intolerance among this very tolerant crowd for the stupidity that has prevailed for the last decade or so. In fact, there is a growing intolerance for world stupidity, for lack of a better term. Here are some statistics which point out why teens are becoming fed up:

*In the U.S., youth homicide rates are more than 10 times that of other leading industrialized nations, on par with the rates in developing countries and those experiencing rapid social and economic changes. The youth homicide rate in the U.S. stood at 11.0 per 100,000 compared to France (0.6 per 100 000), Germany (0.8 per 100 000), the United Kingdom (0.9 per 100 000) and Japan (0.4 per 100 000). [World Report on Violence and Health, World Health Organization 2002]

• Persons under the age of 25 accounted for nearly 50 percent of those arrested for murder and 62 percent of those arrested for robbery in 2005. [Youth Violence Facts at a Glance, Summer 2007, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)]

*The World Health Organization declared violence the number one health problem worldwide.


At least there are signs of, maybe not world peace, but a rebellion against these statistics. It's time - not one more person should be killed by a kid with a gun. Hopefully this generation can find a way to end the violence in just American society, if not the world. That would be a huge start.