Why imprison kids in bubble wrap?
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Sergeant York worked the bolt on his 1903 Springfield rifle like a shooting ballerina. Germans fell like so many jellyheads on a Tennessee turkey shoot, his bullets hitting the mark, round after round after round.
Like so many heroes of our U.S. military warriors, the good Sergeant was raised in rural America, hunting, fishing, trapping, shooting and basically rough-housing his adventurous youth to become a rugged, independent, Johnny-on-the-spot, thinking individual.
He was more than capable of improvising, adapting and overcoming.
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From WWI dogfighting aces through infantrymen who set the bar for courage and effectiveness in combat, they proved and continue to prove that the American Way is the best way to hone a real man's instincts to perform under pressure through the physical regimentation of a rough-and-tumble, outdoor upbringing.
Compare that to the ever-increasing tendency of citified families to avoid skinned knees, bashed heads, scrapes and bruises and other badges of honor of a naturally adventurous youth.
They are captives of and contributors to a hyper-litigious society scared to death of kids being kids.
Today's often disconnected "living room" youth can thumb a video game all day long, destroying the planet and blowing up everything and everybody in sight, without any danger whatsoever of ripping a fingernail.
Wimps and zombies, they are. Poor, underdeveloped, soft, thumbnuts, incapable of manhandling a wrench, changing a tire on a bicycle or skinning a rabbit. Pathetic.
When I was growing up in the shadow of the Greatest Generation, following our victory over the evil Japanese Empire and the Nazis, boys didn't sit around twiddling their thumbs and zombying out in front of the TV.
We exuberantly sought that road less traveled, our own fascinating passage to manhood. We built improvisational forts in the woods, dug tunnels, climbed trees, constructed tree forts out of scraps, competed with our Daisy Red Ryder BB guns, hunted rabbits and squirrels, threw rocks and skipped stones. Sometimes at each other. We were all fascinated by guns, knives, wrenches, hammers, nails, saws, crowbars, campfires and the fine art of cutting marshmallow-roasting branches just right.
We were all enrolled and studying hard at the Motorskill Manly Coordination University of America. And we studied hard.
Sure, there were plenty of scary trips to the emergency ward — blood and tears flowing all around. But I am convinced that these are the trials, tribulations and essential rituals necessary for boys to pursue in order to become productive, capable men, leaders of households and protectors of family and society.
Taking care of business
What good is a man who cannot take care of mechanical business?
The very act of climbing a tree and tying a rope to a limb for swinging over a water hole teaches much about improvisational creativity, physics and teamwork. It's brainpower coordinated with physical muscle development.
That it presents the real, tangible danger of falling and getting hurt is critical in the forming of survival skills and real-world cause-and-effect lessons.
Walking and exploring together with buddies. Investigating a rocky hill, a gravel bar on the river. Cutting and sharpening a sapling to form a makeshift spear, and then learning to stalk and stab a fish. These are skills critical to every imaginable scenario that we will all encounter at some point in life.
That kids can't even carry a pocketknife to school anymore is an indictment to a societal negativity and denial that does much more harm than good.
Hell, in my youth, millions of kids brought guns to school for ROTC marksmanship drills and during the hunting season, and nobody was getting shot.
Discipline at home and at school was the guiding force then. Today, we're worried about "feelings" and arresting kids for carrying butter knives and aspirin.
God help us all.
So drag that kid away from the TV set. Get them a bow and arrow. Take them to the woods.
Teach them how to make a campsite and make a fire.
Turn them on with the healing powers of nature and the soulful joys of challenge and independence.
It will cleanse their souls and strengthen their bodies and minds.
Ted Nugent is a Waco-based musician and television-show host.
