What’s cool now, isn’t always
I love youth and inexperience and the classical “the world exists
because it is the way I know it.” Heck, I was this way. Joey
Richter-Kazer, the Corona del Mar High School student that has the
wherewithal to write in the Daily Pilot (“Student outlook,” Oct. 22),
should be applauded as someone who has the eloquence to elaborate on
what’s happening and to share it with us.
I think this is cool. And what Joey describes as what many kids
think is cool is eternal in Orange County. The jocks, the rich kids
with the cool cars. Those who spend their parents’ money with
abandon; these are those that are considered cool. Of course, those
of us “older” people who grew up here have seen this before, as we
see it now. Some things never change.
I would like to impart to Joey that it is not money that is all
important, but values, upbringing, class and style. And trust me,
Joey, driving your VW and being a good person is a lot classier than
driving a BMW and being a jerk. It’s the same as you get older.
Of course, in such an affluent area as this, it may be difficult
to ascertain this. And of course, the pretty women will congregate
toward those who flash money, those who throw money around, those con
artists that are infamous here in Newport Beach. But these people
come and go. Even the ones that we grew up with.
As we get older, we find what was cool when we were growing up was
actually pretty uncool, or at the least totally irrelevant to the
real world -- unless of course you spent four years at USC (sorry,
but I got my bachelor’s of science and arts at USC and I was the only
one I know who didn’t cheat). But eventually, reality comes into
play, and what is right prevails, however latently. Like the
revelations of corporate accounting scandals, corporate fraud and
political collusion.
It is Joey and his classmates who will decide what is cool in the
future -- what is cool for this country and this world. I hope that
Joey and his classmates can do better than what I and my classmates
are doing. Our future lays with you Joey, and those like you. Hope
springs eternal from your youth and enthusiasm. Keep it, hold it and
exploit it.
* Paul James Baldwin is a Newport Beach resident.
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