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.