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REACHING OUT

St. AUGUSTINE'S CHURCH NEWSLETTER Summer 2005 No 58

DISRESPECTIN THE HOOD

Having failed to impress voters with a whole string of promises we have all heard before, some doctor of spin decided that an attack on the `yob' culture might pull in the punters. Let's talk about good old fashioned respect or the lack of it‑neighbourhoods and communities terrorised by youngsters disguised in hoods. A phenomenon which has apparently been driving people from Bluewater and similar temples and shrines of 21st century consumerism. Banning the hood has led to shoppers flocking back to Bluewater to browse hassle free in designer shops. All those credit cards doing overtime and driving up interest rates again.

Who are these hooded ones, are they any different to previous generations of lively youngsters who aroused a similar anxiety? Certainly they are no worse than some of the youths l was teaching in Peckham 20 years ago. l suppose its natural for youngsters to test the boundaries and see what they can get away with, its how they learn the rules of society. The trouble is we live in a society that has forgotten how to behave, we have let most of the boundaries disappear‑and chucked out most of the rules. There are few deterrents to stop people behaving badly and any penalties, such as exist are hard to impose.

Its no use just blaming the parents or the teachers, rather as a society we must all accept responsibility for the yobbish behaviour we do not like.

We may not fancy a mouthful of abuse from some youth who has his or her street cred challenged by one of us oldies when we check their behaviour, but years of saying nothing has allowed the culture we wish to see

In any case, in letting their disrespect go unchallenged aren't we disrespecting our young people? Perhaps it’s our own unrecognized lack of respect that leads to many youngsters developing that lack of self esteem, self respect, that makes them want to hide inside a hood?

Maybe some of our young people just don't feel valued by adult society? They wake up each day with that awful feeling that somehow life isn't going anywhere, completely different to when we were young and had a sense that there was a whole world to be gained.

If we try to nurture self respect in our young people then may be they will respect society more. It's no use moaning, we need to invest more resources in young people and develop a culture in which we can pass on the simple lessons most of us `adults' have learnt about life, like 'you only get out of life what you put into it' or 'that's not how you treat your mates' and above all 'Don't disrespect others if you want others to respect you!

Your friend and priest,

Father Keith