Generation Y or whatever we are calling them now.

It is 10pm in Anywhere, USA and in 8 out 10 homes televisions are tuned to the evening news. For the first ten to fifteen minutes viewers are bombarded with stories about shootings, stabbings and general misconduct by today's youth. Each night is pretty much a carbon copy of the night before, but last night I had the chance to see the side of today's young people that is hardly ever spoken about. It was unfortunately at a very sad event, but it is indicative of what is missing in today's media and information rich society. My wife and I attended the wake for Downers Grove resident Jennie Dizon who was struck by lightening a few days ago while writing in a her journal at a local park. She was just weeks away from her eighteenth birthday and days away from her high school graduation. The wake was held over two days and the line yesterday wrapped around the chapel and into the hallway. We were told that the day before it was even longer. Jennie was obviously a very well loved young woman but what really caught my eye was the open show of support, compassion and emotion that was on display by the young people there. Young men embracing in long and tear filled hugs, young woman holding hands and singing hymns. There were a group of young men and woman who were leading the singing the entire time we were there and they were there joining in when the priest came to lead everyone in praying the rosary. There were probably 200 chairs in the room, all filled with older people while the young people stood along the walls or sat on the floor in the hallways. There was no fighting, no swearing, no loud music blaring, no signs of disrespect of any kind. Just hundreds of young people comforting each other on the loss of one of their own. We have not lost this generation, we have merely been focusing attention on the wrong group. Thanks to the media and today's instant access to anything, anywhere we have become a nation of eavesdroppers, with a need to hear and see everything that happens, when it happens. And because of that, all we tend to see is the negative things that people and so often kids do to each other. But the truth is that there are more young people out there like the ones I saw last night, than there are of the ones you see on the news and we need to celebrate that fact and nurture them. Perhaps one day in the not too distant future we will all be able to sit in front of our television sets at 10pm and see less stories about how bad this generation is and more stories about the good kids out there like the ones I had the great opportunity to see last night.