Are the children really to blame?

We read in the papers and hear on the air,

Of killing and stealing and crime everywhere.

We sigh and we say, as we notice this trend,

“This young generation...where will it all end?”

But can we be sure that it’s their fault alone,

That maybe a part of it isn’t our own?

Are we less guilty, who place in their way

Too many things that lead them astray?

Too much money, too much idle time;

Too many books not fit to be read,

Too much evil in what they hear said;

Too many children encouraged to roam,

Too many parents who won’t stay at home.

Kids don’t make the movies, they don’t write the books,

They don’t paint bad pictures of gangsters and crooks;

They don’t make the liquor, they don’t run the bars.

They don’t make the laws and they don’t sell the cars;

They don’t peddle drugs that mess up their brain –

That’s all done by older folks, greedy for gain.

Delinquent teenagers, oh how we condemn

The sins of the nation and blame it on them:

By the laws of the blameless the Savior made known,

Who is there among us to cast the first stone?

For in so many cases – it’s sad – but it’s true,
The title ‘Delinquent’ fits older folks too!