Optimum World
Toxic stress + bad diet = HUGE PROBLEMS
Dear Straight Talk: I have the opportunity to observe teenagers without being a teacher, administrator or counselor. I notice three things: 1) Those getting into trouble have stressful home lives and parent issues. 2) These kids commonly…
16 Comments
Is boss out to lunch regarding wages?
Dear Straight Talk: My boss keeps telling me young people have it easy today. But I’ve worked 40 hours a week at $12 an hour for eight months and have been unsuccessful at saving money for college. I ride a bicycle six miles to work,…
5 Comments
Cost of virtual violence Part II
Dear Readers: Last week, “Curious Reader” asked if mass shootings are the price of society’s insatiable appetite for media violence. A furious defense ensued from the male panelists (see our column JAN 8), who pointed…
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Imagine there’s no violence. I wonder if you can.
Dear Straight Talk: This generation is not just born and bred on the Internet, but on an insatiable diet of violence in movies, video games and rap. The other thing uniquely part of their world are mass shootings. If these shootings were…
1 Comment
Safe schools — panel weighs in with solutions
Dear Readers: The best ‘in-school’ solution I know to make schools places where kids are welcomed by their peers, versus places of harm, is the “Safe School Ambassadors” program. The program works with human nature:…
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Optimum World 2013
Dear Readers: Youth are society’s truth serum. Every year during the symbolic time of the holidays, I ask the panelists what they wish for the world. Reaching out to others and the earth, the need for community mind over individual…
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Let’s keep up the straight talk
Dear Readers: Since 2004 Straight Talk has been bringing you the "straight talk". We are a small, independent nonprofit writing some of the straight-talkin'est youth news found anywhere. It's ironic that we live in a world overloaded…
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Halloween costumes that mock cultures a bad idea
Dear Straight Talk: I'm in college and my very nice roommates are talking about dressing up as Muslims for Halloween. One, who is buff, is even talking about putting on blackface and going as Muhammad Ali. I think both the blackface…
2 Comments
Boy worries about end of the world
Dear Straight Talk: I'm afraid for the end of the world. How do others cope with the mistreatment of our planet? We have rising oceans, nuclear plant meltdowns, species extinction, food-chain disruptions, economic collapse, nuclear…
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Making a better world, Part II
DEAR READERS: Each New Year I ask the panelists: What bugs you most about the world? How would you make the world better? Last week's “better world” column covered concerns about how digital networking has diminished face-to-face…
