Youths

The following is part of a letter to teenagers from a judge in the Brisbane Juvenile Court.

Always we hear the cry from teenagers. What can we do? Where can we go? My answer is: Go home. Mow the lawns — wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons and after you have finished, read a book!

Your town does not owe you recreation facilities, your parents do not owe you fun. The world does not owe you a living. You owe the world something. You owe it your time, energy and talents so that no-one will be at war, in poverty or sick and lonely again.

In other words, grow up, stop being a cry baby, get out of your dreamworld and develop a backbone, not a wishbone. Start behaving like a responsible person.

You are important and you are needed. It is too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something some day. Some day is now and that somebody is you!