When I was growing up, our biggest fear was the atom bomb and we had some classroom exercises to get under our desks should it happen, which actually was rather a joke. And the biggest joke is we are the ones who dropped the atom bomb.

But today’s kids are dealing with more stress than we can imagine or could’ve imagined in our youth. They have to worry about possible terrorist attacks, possible maniac attacks with assault weapons, climate change catastrophes, and the general insecurity that the new computer internet age has produced. The fact there is so much information out there could be good except the information is endless and it’s not really information but more opinions, and there’s no way to confirm the truth in much of anything.

Kids are on their own to figure it all out at a very young age. They are the heroes. They hopefully will put all the pieces together and figure out how to survive what has been presented to them. They deserve better.

Abby Armstrong, Harpswell Neck