Utopia, USA

Last weekend I drove out of town to visit an old friend from college, whom I hadn’t seen in years. We sat and reminisced about the ‘days gone by’, ate a wonderful home cooked dinner and then all retired to the living room to watch the news. Funny how one episode of the news can change a room full of happy faces into a room full of frowns. It seemed like every other story had something to do with teenagers. They were either fighting, committing crimes, doing drugs or something worse. “What the heck is our country coming to?” I asked rhetorically. The answer that I got would forever change the way I look at life. This is a true story… partially.More... “I agree that our country has got some problems. But as concerned citizens we have to take a stand.” My friend answered. “You’re exactly right, but what can we really do?” I asked. My friend exchanged glances with his wife, then looked at me and asked “Do you really want to know the answer?” I was almost afraid to nod my head but I did. To which he responded “Follow me.” He led me into his basement and popped a video tape into the player and we started watching what appeared to be a home movie. But this wasn’t an ordinary movie; this looked like a surveillance video capturing a group of teens hanging out in an alley near someone’s garage. A few of the teens were passing around what could have been a cigarette, while a few other kids held aerosol cans which I assumed were filled with spray paint. “Oh I get it.” I said. “You guys organized to gather evidence against the local delinquents and give it to the police to deal with. Great idea, kind of like a neighborhood watch program, right?” I said, smiling as if I had out-smarted the great Sherlock Holmes himself. My friend however was not smiling. “We used to do that but the kids would get a slap on the wrist and be back out doing the same things again and worse.” So we formed our own group; The Citizens for a Better Future. We are everyday people who believe in good old moral values. Remember the days when kids respected elders, when your neighbors saw you doing something wrong and told your parents?” he asked. “Yes.” I said getting more curious by the moment. Where was he going with all this? I wondered. “I’m sure that you have heard the quote ‘spare then rod and spoil the child’. Well we believe that a lot of today’s problems are caused by the fact that many children today are spoiled. So we have banded together to do something about it.” Right then the TV screen showed two minivans pull up to where the teens were located and 6 adults jumped out dressed in all black garb including black wind-breaker jackets with big bold white letters CBF on the back. The masked adults lined the mischievous teens up against the garage door and I observed as they took each kid one by one, held him over one of their knees, pulled his pants down and set to work issuing out about four to six good whacks across the buttocks with a belt. Although there was no sound on this video I could almost hear the wailing and pleading coming from the teens. I watched carefully thinking that this is insane – you can’t just whip other peoples kids, can you? When it was all done each of the kids appeared to be sincerely apologetic and with bowed heads they all walked away in separate directions. “Wow! You’ve got to be kidding.” I said. “How can you get away with this?” I asked. “Well most of the town people agreed that something had to be done and we began meeting to discuss solutions, when an elder made the remark that some of these kids just need a good old fashioned ‘tanning’. So we took a vote and formed a committee. We wear masks to protect our identities and we do what’s needed. Nobody gets hurt we are careful about that part; but most importantly, all that mayhem that you saw on the news tonight – does not happen here. We the people will not allow it. We do what we do because we care.” My friend said. This was all pretty overwhelming to me and so I had to let my mind chew on it a bit before I could decide how I felt about it all. The rest of the weekend was very pleasant and memorable. I bade them farewell and promised to come again soon. As I headed home I couldn’t stop thinking about this odd little town with the odd little name: Utopia. It’s actually a nice to place to visit, but I think the people there might be a little too odd. Living by moral values, taking responsibility to work together as a community to address important issues, these are radical concepts. It‘s the governments job to take care of things like keeping our kids in line… isn’t it?