Youths Sleep in Cardboard Boxes to Raise Awareness

(Lakewood, Ohio) Between 6PM Saturday and noon Sunday, a group of youths spent the night outside St. Peter's Episcopal Church in cardboard boxes to raise their awareness of the plight of the homeless. The temperatures were icily below freezing.

Although it would be just as reasonable, having the youths trek dozens of miles across the searing desert to raise awareness of the plight of illegal aliens is apparently not scheduled. Raising awareness of the plight of ex-con parolees in halfway houses is also not on the agenda. No also to raising awareness of kids in foster homes and the victims of child abuse. And, most troubling, the kids are seldom taught awareness of the many people who have served, been wounded and died to protect the United States from foreign and domestic enemies.

However, it's probably a good idea to teach the children alternative lifestyles. Since the high school graduation rate hovers dismally around 50 percent in Cleveland, homelessness skills are arguably desirable. After all, without an education, where else can they turn?

As a suggestion for the organizers of the vagrancy-r-us project, the curricula should definitely include some on-the-job experience at begging and panhandling. The youths then would be fully prepared to support and be included in the homeless demographic and help increase the size of the non-productive segment of society.

Sarcasm aside, the sleeping in cardboard boxes is nothing more than political indoctrination. Kids are being taught to have sympathy for the homeless. They should already know, without the experience, that cardboard boxes make terrible shelters and that it's cold in the middle of winter.

Instead of teaching kids sympathy for the homeless, teaching sympathy for the small business owner would be more appropriate. Let them realize the challenge of trying to succeed with high taxes, massive government regulation and rampant crime. Teaching kids how to achieve is far more important than teaching them sympathy for the losers.