Growing Up Is Hard to Do

For a good portion of young adults, leaving the nest and breaking free from mom and dad, just isn’t going to be happening anytime soon.

Back in 2006, an article by Reuters said, “[O]ne study found 80 percent of students on the eve of graduation did not have jobs lined up and 67 percent were not confident in their chosen career path.”

Four years later in 2010, CNN Money reported that nearly 15% of young adults ages 20-24 [found] themselves unemployed and moving back in with their parents.

Photo of Neil T and His Parents

CNN also reported the findings of a poll by Twentysomething Inc., which discovered that 85% of college seniors decided to move back home with their parents after graduating in May 2010.

With poor economic times, companies have been downsizing and outsourcing jobs to people outside the United States.

New to the game, college graduates are faced with large student loans and a rocky job market that’s increasingly requiring higher degrees and technical know-how.

The competition is stiffer than ever for the limited amount of positions open for college graduates who lack the working experience and bargaining power of more older and experienced workers.

For my showcase, I’d like to shed more light into the situation many of these former students are going through and defend the twenty-somethings who are still dependent on their parents.

Some people compare the early independence of youth in former generations to the youth today. However, times have changed and the youths of yesteryear barely needed a high school degree to land good jobs.

The generation of past youths married and started families at an earlier age, but today’s youth are more highly educated and wait longer to get married and start families.

They want to enjoy their youth and they’re willing to take more chances while they can, in order to find a career that suits them best.

Young adults have seen what the poor economy has done to more experienced workers and they’ve also seen more divorces.

With innovations in science and medicine, people can now live past their 70s. They don’t want to settle down just yet with anybody and they want to find the right thing for them now.

Far from the contrary, it’s not a stigma to still need your parents.

Job Fair: USACE Public Affairs, Corps talks jobs to engineering students

The founder of Twentysomething Inc, David Morrison said, “There’s almost an expectation that kids will move back home, there is no stigma attached. The thought now is to move home for 6-12 months but in reality those young adults will be home for a year and a half or longer. Even if they have jobs, they are living at home.”

According to Health Day, a study that appeared in the March 2011 issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family found that it’s normal and healthy for parents of 20-something year olds to provide financial and housing support.

The study goes against the myth that young adults receiving help are slackers who don’t want to grow up. The study also goes against the assumption that parents are spoiling their children and stifling their children’s independence.

“[Y]oung people do eventually become independent of parents as they grow older,” study author Teresa Swartz, said in a journal news release.

“Parental aid serves as ‘scaffolding’ to help young people who are working towards financial self-sufficiency and as ‘safety nets’ for those who have experienced serious difficulties,” Swartz said.

In all likelihood, most young adults won’t stay at home forever.

According to CNN Money, “The job picture for recent grads may be brightening. Employers expect to hire 13.5% more new grads from the Class of 2011 than they hired from the Class of 2010, according to a new study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.”

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Young Adults Slow to Reach Independence

Young adults are growing up at a slower pace. The social science terms-extended adolescence, kidults, boomerang kids, whatever you want to call it, it’s been going on for years.

The 2006 movie, “Failure to Launch,” and the new sitcoms. “$#*! My Dad Says,” and “Big Lake,” all depict young adults who still rely on their parents and family members for financial support.

According to Marie Claire, in a  study by Teresa Swartz, Swartz explained, “Parental aid serves as ‘scaffolding’ to help young people who are working towards financial self-sufficiency and as ‘safety nets’ for those who have experienced serious difficulties. In an economy that requires advanced education for good jobs, parents are more likely to aid their children when they are students. As the labor market offers fewer opportunities for stable … well-paid work … parents often fill in when needed.”

According to Boundless, which offers a Christian viewpoint of single adult lives, “For kidults marriage and family fall in the zone of “maybe, someday, but that’s years away.” The typical kidult isn’t committed to any particular local church. They’re doing all sorts of things, but getting nowhere, just living from day to day in their own Never-Never Lands. They’re Peter Pans who shave.”

In a blog post, Jason Young lists eight observations he’s made about twenty-somethings: increased risky behavior, longer financial dependence on parents, lack of commitment, hop from job to job, lack of direction, getting married later, adolescent-like decision making skills and in and out of multiple relationships.

Young also notes eleven factors that contribute to extended adolescence: American affluence, economic shifts, older adults trying to act young again, higher education requirements, helicopter parents, perceiving adulthood as no fun, our industrialized culture, the enabling of familial environments, delayed responsibility, their personal family experience and society’s technological advancements.

In a USA Today article by Sharon Jayson, Jayson argued that “Society is also an enabler. The advent of birth control pills led to changes in sexual mores, with less pressure for marriage. Twenty-somethings have seen their parents’ early marriages end in divorce and the jobs their parents thought they’d have for 30 years end with corporate downsizing. As boomers resist aging and watch TV programs like Nip/Tuck that glorify youth, their offspring are paying attention.”

The same article quoted Alexandra Robbins, co-author of the 2001 book Quarterlife Crisis. “Twentysomethings are proving they want to get it ‘right’ now. Our generation does not want to make our parents’ generation’s mistakes.”

In another post Peter Lavelle discussed a study on the benefits of prolonging young adulthood. “In September 2004, the Current Population Survey discovered that graduates were three times more likely to volunteer for charitable work than those without a degree. Further, though graduates typically spend longer finding work, the roles in which they establish themselves tend to bring greater satisfaction.: they rate their happiness above gross domestic product.”

Lavelle also pointed out that “[i]n short, reports of a ‘generation that won’t grow up’ are alarmist, and misrepresent both the prevalent experience of Generation Y-ers and their intentions. Higher rates of education have produced a generation given to contemplation, more inclined to make sure the path they set themselves is correct than give in to societal expectations. Doubtless a number of young adults exploit this situation, finding in the release from immediate responsibilities an excuse to do nothing. Yet for others, using their twenties as a ‘transition stage’ can benefit themselves and society.”

According to the New York Times Magazine, “The whole idea of milestones, of course, is something of an anachronism; it implies a lockstep march toward adulthood that is rare these days. Kids don’t shuffle along in unison on the road to maturity. They slouch toward adulthood at an uneven, highly individual pace. Some never achieve all five milestones, including those who are single or childless by choice, or unable to marry even if they wanted to because they’re gay. Others reach the milestones completely out of order, advancing professionally before committing to a monogamous relationship, having children young and marrying later, leaving school to go to work and returning to school long after becoming financially secure.

The same article continued with, “Even if some traditional milestones are never reached, one thing is clear: Getting to what we would generally call adulthood is happening later than ever. But why? That’s the subject of lively debate among policy makers and academics. To some, what we’re seeing is a transient epiphenomenon, the byproduct of cultural and economic forces. To others, the longer road to adulthood signifies something deep, durable and maybe better-suited to our neurological hard-wiring. What we’re seeing, they insist, is the dawning of a new life stage — a stage that all of us need to adjust to.”

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The King Hearing: The Heroism and Hatred

Peter King, Official 109th Congress Photo

After incidences of violence by radical Muslims, Representative Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) called for a congressional meeting to discuss homegrown Islamic terrorists and the role of Muslims in American society.

King, who is head of the House Committee on Homeland Security, called for the hearing entitled, “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response” on Thursday, March 10, 2011.

Over concern over Al-Qaeda activating recruiting within the Muslim community and in defense of the hearing, King said in a statement that appeared on Fox News, “I will not allow political correctness to obscure a real and dangerous threat to the safety and security of the citizens of the United States.”

King was largely motivated to call the hearing because he wanted to prevent another al-Qaida attack. “To back down would be a craven surrender to political correctness, and an abdication of what I believe to be the main responsibility of this committee, to protect America from a terrorist attack,” said King to Voice of America.

On Fox News, King said he was concerned over al-Qaida activating recruiting within the Muslim community, but critics believe that the hearings only serve as a witch hunt for Muslim Americans.

Critics have argued that the hearings should not focus on the Muslim community, but it should include a broader array of groups that may threaten American lives such white supremacists groups and anti-government hate groups, according to the same article on the Voice.

King’s hearings are largely supported by Republican committee members and stand in opposition against many Democratic committee members, civil rights groups, Muslim advocacy groups and multiple religious leaders from Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths.

According to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, there’s still a continuing divide among the public as to whether Islam encourages more or less violence than other religions.

Between February 22 and March1, 2011, the Pew found that among 1,504 adults, 40% of the public agreed that Islam encourages violence among its believers and 42% disagreed.

Down With Terrorism. Photo taken on November 30, 2008 from Bird Eye, who got the photo on http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/29.

Compared to survey results conducted in March 2002 which showed how 25% of the public believed that Islam encourages violence and nearly twice (51%) the public were in opposition, the 2011 study found a clear split across political, religious, racial and age groups.

Many fear that the hearings will not reach the root cause of terrorism in the United States, but will only serve to increase violence against Muslim Americans.

According to Human Rights First and Islamophobia Watch, there have already been several incidences of violence against Muslims that has been largely fueled by anti-Muslim bigotry.

Asim Rehman, vice-president of the Muslim Bar Association of New York, said that the hearings would divide the country and would be potentially dangerous, according to New York Magazine.

“Last year we saw vandalism, verbal threats, actual physical violence committed against Muslim Americans,” Rehman said. “Will these hearings convince others to do the wrong thing?””

For a large part of the Muslim community, they have been doing the right thing.

National Spokesperson for the grassroots organization, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, Harris Zafar argued the commitment and faithfulness of the Muslim community to American by citing a study released last month.

According to Zafar, the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security found that 48 of 69 individuals who were planning a terrorist attack on American soil were arrested ahead of time due to the vast cooperation of Muslim Americans who provided tips in 48 out of 120 terrorist cases in the United States.

To stop King from solely targeting the Muslim community in his hearings and excluding other groups, Co-director of Religious Freedom USA, Frank Fredericks was seen in a Youtube video making a call to King.

In the video, Fredericks encourages other individuals to reach out to King by repeating his message of contempt towards the hearings.

The hearings are said to continue, but in the meantime, organizations such as Muslim Voices seem to be on the right track of promoting cultural understanding and dialogue between Muslims and Non-Muslims in their videos, “College Life As A Muslim with Musa Burki” and “What Do You Think People Most Misunderstand About Islam?”

King’s hearings are most likely not intentionally trying to hurt the overall Muslim community, but it does so nonetheless. Perhaps King’s future committee hearings should pay more attention to the commonalities between groups across the America so that as we as a nation will be able to move forward instead of backwards.

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Creatively Cleaning the City

Photo by web4camguy, taken on May 15, 2009 in Olde City, Philadelphia using a Nikon D200.

There are dog lovers everywhere.

Last year, a website dedicated to dogs, Dogasaur.com, created a Facebook page in July and received over 200,000 ‘Likes’ in less than two months, according to SocialTimes. As of March 2011, Dogasaur is still growing strong with over 251,000 Likes.

However, as much as people love their furry companions, no one likes to clean up dog waste.

According to the New York Post, the upper Manhattan neighborhood, Washington Heights, was ranked by the Sanitation Department as the worst offender of dog poop, with the highest amount of canine waste found on Riverside Drive, Amsterdam Avenue and 179th and 160th streets.

New York State dog owners are required by the 1978 Canine Waste Law, more widely known as the “Pooper-Scooper Law,” to clean up after their dog’s waste, according to a 2004 press release by the New York City Parks & Recreation Department.

At $8.50 to license spayed or neutered dogs and $34 for otherwise unspayed and unneutered dogs, the law calls for the “Removal of canine wastes in cities with a population of four hundred thousand or more persons.”

New York has come a long way in having cleaner, dog-poop-free streets since 1978, but many still continue to violate the law. In the same press release, “the Department of Sanitation enforcement wrote 644 summonses for those in violation of the canine waste law” in 2003.

It can be difficult to provide a financial incentive for people to pick up their dog waste when the penalty for first time offenders is $50 and many people still do not register their dogs with the state, according to Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, the authors of the New York Times bestseller, “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, in a 2005 New York Times article.

Photo by 416style, taken on July 7, 2006 in The Distillery District, Toronto, ON, CA, using a Sony DSC-S600.

According to Dubner and Levitt, in 2004, “the city ticketed only 471 dog-waste violations, which suggests that the typical offender stands a roughly 1-in-8,000 chance of getting a ticket.”

To rectify the dog waste situation, Dubner and Levitt suggested that as part of the New York City dog licensing procedure, a sample of the canine’s saliva or blood should be kept on file. When fecal matter is found on the sidewalk, a sample of it could be traced back to the registered canine DNA and the offender would be mailed a ticket.

The the dog owners of the 102,004 dogs that were licensed in 2003, would be held accountable for their dog waste management.

This would still leave 80 percent of the total 530,000 dogs found in New York as unregistered dogs, according to another article by The New York Times.

It would be expensive to create a $30 million citywide canine DNA system so Dubner and Levitt have also suggested that the government should pay dog owners to register their dogs and to enforce the law by having random street checks of registered dogs.

There has also been growing interest in turning fecal matter into sustainable energy.

Many countries have looked into building methane digesters that live off of animal waste and convert fecal matter into methane energy.

However, many government agencies have been weary of methane digester projects, as they should be, warned Nicolette Hahn Niman in her 2006 New York Times Op-Ed article. Niman, who is a livestock farmer and environmental lawyer, said that methane digesters should not be considered “green power,” but more of “brown power” due to the financial and environmental strain it can put on society.

The Park Spark Project. For more information, visit: http://parksparkproject.com/artwork/1595601.html

‘[D]igesters, incinerators and biodiesel plants are expensive to build and run” said Niman, and these projects would have to be subsidized by public money. It would only be economical if waste from hundreds of thousands of animals were made available, such as the waste created by 500,000 pigs that run a manure biodiesal plant at a Smithfield Foods operation in Utah.

Traditional farms would be able to recycle their waste more easily, said Niman, but livestock operations would have to expand their livestock in order to support the costs of installing a methane digester.

Niman also explained that methane digesters do not get rid of the solid waste, but instead turns it into a manure slurry.

The manure slurry can sometimes be larger than the original volume of the manure and contains most of the properties that make feces pollutants, especially when organizations store the feces in its pre and post slurry state in large storage ponds.

Nevertheless, despite the hesitation of using methane digesters, many government institutions and interested parties are looking at one of the most recent innovations of recycling dog waste.

Created by Matthew Mazzotta, who is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) visual arts program and lead artist of The Park Spark Project, Mazzotta designed a methane digester that converts dog waste into energy.

The methane digester allows dog owners and dog walkers to place their dog’s feces in plastic bags and the bag in the digester. Then they would spin the dial to start mixing and recycling the manure.

It is currently being used in a public dog park in Cambridge, Massachusetts to light up a gas-burning lamppost that’s known as the ‘eternal flame’ and the organizers of the project are looking for other ways of using the energy.

Until then, the ‘eternal flame’ stands alone as a beacon of things to come.

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