A friend of mine recently told me that he quit watching and reading the news. While he knows that things are not going well in our country or world, he says it's the best decision he ever made because there is a lot less anger in his life. I can certainly relate given the amount of time I spend reading the news and preparing for this column, my podcast, my radio show, and now my sub stack page. But it really doesn't take that much effort to see hope in this world.

One of the things that I believe most of us agree about is the attitude of the younger generations. There seems to be a victim mentality and a me-first dynamic that makes them almost intolerable. They are not good employees and they seem to complain about everything that doesn't go their way. I certainly have expressed a number of emotions and opinions that would not be considered favorable towards these snowflakes.

But recently I was looking at a website that I visit for mindless entertainment. The website features posts that span a wide variety of topics and interests. You might see things like before and after pictures of rescued pets or wonders of the world. There are also posts in which people wonder if they are acting badly or if they have done something wrong or right. It was one of those types of posts, actually several to be honest, but one in particular that restored some of my faith in humanity and maybe led me to believe that the snowflake generations do contain some good people.

The scenario in which the poster was asking if he was wrong painted a picture of family tension between the poster and his parents in an ongoing dispute with his sister and her husband. 10 years ago the poster and his parents asked the brother-in-law if they could borrow his skid steer in order to help build a deck at the parents' house. The BIL is a contractor, and the skid steer was needed for his business. He offered to bring it by and help himself, but was out of town at the time the parents wanted to start construction.

Long story short, they got the sister to let them into the yard, picked up the skid steer and a dump trailer and headed to the parent's home. Because Dad's truck wasn't big enough to tow the load, he lost control and wrecked. His truck and all the equipment were totaled. According to the poster, Dad's insurance wouldn't cover the equipment. Being in insurance, there's something fishy about his claim. Dad and the poster refused to reimburse the BIL since he was better off financially.

To me, the poster epitomizes what many of us find disturbing about the younger generations. There is no personal responsibility or accountability. They can't be expected to be responsible for their actions especially when they go against someone else's wishes. It's especially disheartening since the poster and his parents believe they shouldn't be responsible since the sister and BIL have worked hard to build a business that allows them to be financially stable. In other words, since the poster and his parents have not been financially responsible, they shouldn't be held responsible.

So when other members of this website were asked if the poster of the story was wrong, I honestly expected the majority of answers from these younger people to say that he was not. Just for clarification, it is the habit of everyone on this website to identify their age. The original author of the post was 33 which is fairly representative of most of the people who responded. And overwhelmingly they said he was wrong. They agreed that he and his parents should at least make an effort to reimburse the BIL for his financial loss, which was in excess of $70,000. Even if they couldn't pay the full amount the gesture would have meant quite a bit.

There is hope out there folks. Maybe there is a ray of sunshine making its way through the clouds of doom that seem to be hanging over our nation.