Is the future in trouble?

Back when I was a silly teenager, I felt I had only two duties in life, to be young and have fun. Holidays meant spending every possible second away from home. Telling me to get acquainted with home was like telling me to look down the barrel of a gun and if I was forced to choose one, I can tell you now that it would be the latter.As a former rebellious teen, I’m in no position to judge the ridiculously young individuals I bump into every so often downing alcohol like there is a bill in parliament to ban it. However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned. Why should I be? Well, for starters, there won’t be a future if these kids keep pouring hard liquor down their throats and puffing away at cancer sticks. They have more potential than I ever had at their age and it would kill anyone to watch them waste it like that.I once befriended one of these youngsters after she hoped from table to table, drinking anything alcoholic. She was unusually polite for a girl her age and with that much alcohol in her system. I sat her down to pick her brain. We hit it off like we had known each other for years. She was actually quite smart. She knew a little bit about everything, and that for me, is as intelligent as you are ever going to get! She spoke with confidence and never once backed away from a subject. She seemed like a leader.Last week, I was left seriously disturbed when one girl, probably about 15 years old, walked to a table and downed the three sips of beer a stranger had left in her glass! The stranger left the table with some beer still in her glass and this girl walked right over and emptied the glass for her. Okay, even I never got to the level of drinking people’s leftovers! What the hell? By the time they got up to go, her and her friends were falling all over each other, not one of them had the strength to get up and leave. I suppose ID’s are not taken seriously and that might seem unfair considering no one ever asked me for an ID, but hey, the one who cares isn’t the one who helps you kill your liver faster, is it? It might not be my place, and I beg to be excused if I’ve indirectly offended anyone but as a citizen of this wonderful country, you can’t blame a sister for being concerned. We can’t just look away and pretend like nothing is wrong, or act like its okay or worse, like it’s none of our business. It IS our business because we are family. Do I hear divine intervention?